


Hare and Hatter

by GRINtelligencer



Category: Pandora Hearts
Genre: Barma is not a nice man, Break and Liam centric, Child Abuse, Gen, Highly AU, Intrigue, Liam's Chain is important, Mystery, Physical Abuse, Secrets, Xerxes is a good friend
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-08-26
Updated: 2018-02-03
Packaged: 2018-02-14 20:32:44
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 51
Words: 69,143
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2202096
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/GRINtelligencer/pseuds/GRINtelligencer
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Because Break is Mad Hatter and Liam is March Hare. Which made it all inevitable in the end. AU and canon fusion, Liam-centric.</p>
<p>Warnings for mentions of child abuse, physical abuse, and some grisly violence.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> This story is very heavy on the AU, but is the result of a good amount of speculation about Liam done back when we didn’t know very much about him or his background. It’s blended with canon along the way but dips very heavily into the AU since it had to adapt to the ongoing story which really pulled a fast one on me. Shows what happens when you try to predict what will happen next in Pandora Hearts! 
> 
>  
> 
> This has can also be found on FFN under the same name.

**Part One**

**Chapter One**

\--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

Liam grew up passed between the Barma and Rainsworth households.

The Barma mansion was where his master lived, or where he had lived most of the time when not at Pandora; Rufus Barma having taken him in when he was nothing but an orphan with no prospects. It was a large house but for the most part it was empty, there were few real servants --most where illusions-- full of dark rooms layered with dust and cobwebs and despair.

The Rainsworth estate was where he stayed when the Lady Cheryl noticed the child was looking particularly lost and frightened. In the Rainsworth household there were no lurking illusions to frighten him and there were real people who smiled at him and spoke to him and where so different from the lifeless simulacrums his master created.

He was not unhappy, so to speak, he more than smart enough to understand how fortunate he, an orphan, was to serve such a powerful household, but Rufus Barma was not the easiest master to serve.

Sometimes the master got very angry --very, _very_ angry— and it made him very afraid.

 

\----------------------------------------------

 

_“The boy,”_

 

_“Oh, yes the orphan?”_

 

_“He is…”_

 

_“He is very bright.”_

 

_“The boy,”_

 

_“Yes, the boy?”_

 

_“The boy is…”_

 

_“The boy is, I think, special.”_

 

\----------------------------------------------

 

Liam gained his chain at the tender age of ten.

It was unusual, to say the least, for one so young to attempt to make a contract, but he was clever and quick and his master wanted to see what he could do. So he was sent down into the dark depths of the Barma household to stand at the Door to look into the Abyss for a chain.

He was to call for the Dormouse, Yamane, who was known to be mild of temperament and sleepy in nature and was thought not to be hard for a child to master.

His master Duke Barma waited with Lady Cheryl at the top of the stairs that led to the gate, waiting patiently for the child to reappear. When hours passed and no trace of Liam was seen the two went to search for him, finding him collapsed in front of the Door.

The chain that stood next to him was not Yamane.

It was the March Hare, in his tattered coat, his long ears flopping, his patchwork face stretched wide in a grin that showed broken teeth.

Liam stirred at the gentle touch of Lady Cheryl; he blinked up at the Lady, and _saw_ the chain lurking inside her. He looked over her shoulder and he saw his master, and the thing that hovered around him that he had never been able to _see_ before.

The March Hare laughed with the glee of being free of the Abyss, and Liam fainted.

 

\----------------------------------------------

 

_“Did you hear?”_

 

_“Did you hear?”_

 

_“Did you hear that the child has made a contact with the March Hare?”_

 

_“Oh.”_

 

_“Oh.”_

 

_“How tragic,”_

 

_“Yes, tragic.”_

 

_“But there is no Mad Hatter for him.”_

 

_“_ Oh _.”_

 

_“Then he is alone.”_

 

_“Then perhaps,”_

 

_“Yes, perhaps,”_

 

_“The boy might be saved.”_

 

\----------------------------------------------

**TBC**


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I’d like to make a minor note that the Rufus Barma in this story is somewhat of an AU version of himself. Canon Barma is an jerk with a ruthless streak a mile wide but this Barma takes that one step more into what might be considered actual cruelty. I like a morally ambiguous Barma as much as the next person, this is just a more extreme interpretation of that.

 

**Part One**

**Chapter Two**

\-----------------------------------------------------

 

Liam was taken to Pandora.

Glasses are quickly made for the child, glasses that will block the sight of the chains from his eyes. The child already had problems with his vision, but it had been so serious to hinder him, and no one would have bothered to have glasses fitted to him until he was older and less likely to damage them…

However the Duke Barma quickly had the glasses made.

Because no one could stand the screaming.

But there is no Pandora member that can get close enough to the boy to put them on his face, for he panicked each time he saw a Chain, as he didn’t properly understand what they are, and there are few people in Pandora that were not a contractor of some kind. And Lady Cheryl, along with Lady Shelly, have made it known that they will be Most Displeased should anymore harm come to the child.

Finally a maid was found who is brave enough to hurry up to Liam and shove the glasses onto his nose.

He blinked at her, and _sees_ no monsters.

A collective sigh of relief went through Pandora.

 

\----------------------------------------------

 

Duke Barma peered down at him, taking in the child, his red rimmed eyes, the glasses perched on his nose, the fear in his eyes. He reached down and took hold of his chin, turning Liam’s face this way and that, starring hard at him as if he could see right through him by power of gaze alone.

“Is March Hare truly the chain that you made a contract with?” he finally asked.

“Y-yes, Duke Barma, i-it is.”

The Duke dropped his chin with a disgusted noise. “Useless.” he said.

 

\----------------------------------------------

 

_“We can protect him, can’t we?”_

 

_“Well,_ can’t _we?”_

 

_“Well, there is no Mad Hatter. The boy is not in danger.”_

 

_“There is no Mad Hatter_ yet _.”_

 

_“Ah, true, true.”_

 

_“He will be very lonely.”_

 

_“But at least,”_

 

_“Yes, at least,”_

 

_“He will be safe.”_

 

\----------------------------------------------

 

Then there were lessens, many, many lessens for young Liam, important lessens.

He was taught never, never to use his chain, not in any circumstance, though he is never told why.

His tutors, from Pandora from the most part, are very firm.

He is never to use his chain.

Not even if he is angry or afraid.

Not even to defend his self.

Not even if he is in danger.

Not even to keep away the other monsters.

Not even if his master hits him —when his master hits him.

But all the same never, ever, never.

Liam promises quite solemnly.

 

\----------------------------------------------

 

But though Liam tries to ignore it, March Hare whispers in the back of his mind where he hides because its master refuses to summon him.

He whispers sadly, _“Where is Hatter? He is supposed to be here… where is my Hatter?”_

Liam puts his hands over his ears, but he can still hear the whispers.

_“Where Hatter?”_

_“Where?”_

_“Hatter?”_

_“Hatter…”_

 

\----------------------------------------------

**TBC**

 


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It’s going to be a few chapters until Break shows up, but here’s a little Sharon in appearance in the meantime. And little she is indeed! When I wrote this I wasn’t sure exactly how old Liam was so I ended up accidentally making him a bit older here than he should be in canon.

**Part One** ****

**Chapter Three**

\------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

_“Have you heard?”_

 

_“Ah, have your heard?”_

 

_“The boy,”_

 

_“Yes, the boy,”_

 

_“Has suppressed March Hare,”_

 

_“Ah!”_

 

_“What shall we do with him?”_

 

_“Now?”_

 

_“Yes, now.”_

 

_“Keep him close,”_

 

_“Keep him safe,”_

 

_“Keep him ignorant.”_

 

\----------------------------------------------

 

He was too young to work at Pandora, technically, but since he has a chain he was too important to not be kept close to the organization. It is fortunate that he showed an aptitude for organization and had excellent penmanship, for there was no way they can send him into the field as an agent, and there are far too few staff members to do the paperwork.

It was a bizarre sight, a boy of only eleven; he had had a birthday --celebrated at the Rainsworth estate, where there was cake and a present and celebration--, sitting all alone at a desk that is too large for him, surrounded by piles of paper and stacks of books, ink staining his nose. He had to keep pushing his glasses back up his nose, thus the ink.

It was fortunate that he was uncommonly clever for his age, a child with less discipline than him would have long grown frustrated with the hours of work, thrown the papers into the air, and run out into the fresh air. But he had grown up in the Barma household, with a malevolent master and illusions lurking around every dark corner, and Liam was good at controlled.

And he liked the little room in the Pandora barracks that he was given, it felt… safer. Even though it was surrounded by people who kept monsters.

 

\----------------------------------------------

 

He was distributing reports around the table in the main meeting hall, in preparation for a meeting, never mind that he was scarcely taller than the table, when his master, Duke Barma, walked in. Or, rather, the ridiculous illusion he used in public walked in.

It --he?-- glanced at him briefly before taking his place at the table. Liam made himself small against the far wall as Lady Cheryl entered, leaning heavily on her cane, her ‘attendant’ close behind her. Liam didn’t really understand why Rufus Barma insisted on this disguise and deception, but he supposes that it was to protect the head of the Pandora organization.

The Duke, the actual Duke, glanced at him even more briefly than his illusion had. And Liam could have sworn he heard him mutter, “Useless.” under his breath.

As he kept his post at the wall, he felt his heart sink.

 

\----------------------------------------------

 

March Hare still whispered to  him, _“I can not_ see _…”_

_“I can not_ see _…”_

_“And there is no Hatter…”_

_“Where is my Hatter?”_

_“Hatter…”_

 

\----------------------------------------------

 

Liam is in the gardens with little Miss Sharon, who is only just two.

He remembers he grew up like this, passed between the Barma and Rainsworth households, until he was old enough to be a proper servant, but those were the days before March Hare, and before the glasses.

So though he is fully twelve years old and far too old to be playing games, Liam cannot resist the soulful begging eyes of young Lady Sharon and ends up in the gardens lifting a laughing Miss Sharon up into the air and twirling her around. He laughs with her, unable to 

contain the happiness inside him, he always surprised he is able to make the little girl smile so freely with such a small thing.

Then her arm accidentally caught his glasses a glancing blow, sending them spinning off his face and into the rose bushes. Nothing truly was wrong until Lady Shelly came to see where her daughter had run off too.

One look at the lady and Liam screams, because he see, _sees_ , the chain lurking inside her like a malevolent, black shadow. His screams only stop when he finally faints.

That night Miss Sharon crept into Liam’s room, finding him curled up onto his bed with his arms over his head and pressed his glasses into his hands.

“I’s sorry,” she whispered in her little girl’s voice. “I’s really sorry, Mis’er Liam.”

He puts his glasses back on with shaking hands, only then daring to open his eyes. The world was clear and in focus again. He _sees_ nothing.

Lady Sharon looks up at him, tiny face a picture of concern. “You okay, Mis’er Liam?”

But there is no way to answer that question so she will understand so he just hugs her as gently as he can, resting his chin on her curls.

Because the monsters he was afraid of were not under the bed or in the closet.

There were in people he loved.

And they _frightened_ him.

 

\----------------------------------------------

 

March Hare whispered to him in the dark of night, _“Where is Hatter?”_

_“Where is Hatter?”_

_“Hatter…”_

_“Hatter…”_

 

\----------------------------------------------

**TBC**


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks to everyone reading, I’ll try to keep the chapters coming fairly regularly as I edit.

**Part One** ****

**Chapter Four**

\-------------------------------------------------------------------

 

When Liam was thirteen years old B-Rabbit attacked Pandora for the fourth, and bloodiest, time.

The giant rabbit appeared in the main meeting hall, wielding her scythe so fast that no one had time to move before she sliced the nearest man completely in half. She managed to decapitate another, but then Pandora agents were summoning their Chains, urging them to fight the rouge chain.

But it was difficult to send a Chain that had no master back to the Abyss and even with more than half a dozen agents in the room, it was not easy to keep B-Rabbit from killing the rest of them.

The Chain was forced back toward the far wall, which was where Liam was standing, frozen to the spot, documents clutched in his arms. An agent yelled at him to run, but he just stood there, confused. Because of his glasses, he could not see B-Rabbit advancing on him. He just saw slaughter but he could not see why the people around him were falling in sprays of blood.

And because the exact nature of his glasses was not widely known, no one in the room understood that he could not _see_ the danger advancing on him. He could not _see_ that B-Rabbit was raising her scythe to --until the agent that wielded the Breadandbutter-fly Chain tackled him out of the way, B-Rabbit’s scythe slicing along his savior's back and catching him across the face.

Both tumbled to the ground and his glasses, sliced clean through by the scythe, fell away. Liam _saw_ B-Rabbit for the first time and he starred in horror at the huge rabbit. Then his wits returned to him and he hauled the wielder of the Breadandbutter-fly out of the way of B-Rabbit’s next stroke, falling to the floor and trying, unsuccessfully, to drag the agent farther away from the danger.

He could _not_ call his own Chain. 

The cut down his temple and cheek hurt, but he was more preoccupied with keeping the agent who had saved him, and was currently on the floor bleeding, alive. Things might have gone very badly for the both of them had the other agents in the room not banded together to banish B-Rabbit back to the Abyss.

 

\----------------------------------------------

 

_“The boy almost died!”_

 

_“Calm down.”_

 

_“But he--”_

 

_“We know.”_

 

_“We all realized the mistake.”_

 

_“So what,”_

 

_“Yes, what,”_

 

_“What has been done to fix this?”_

 

_“The boy’s glasses,”_

 

_“They have been changed.”_

 

_“Should another Chain come without a contractor?”_

 

_“He would be able to see them?”_

 

_“Yes.”_

 

_“Good.”_

 

_“But you know,”_

 

_“Yes, I know,”_

 

_“There is only so much that can be done to keep him safe.”_

 

_“Yes…”_

 

\----------------------------------------------

 

The agent who had saved him, and who he in turn had saved, lived, though would sport a nasty scar down his back for the rest of his life. Liam was lucky that the cut on his face was actually quite shallow; he was told that if he did not pick at it, it might not even scar.

He had been fortunate to escape the attack with his life, seven members of Pandora had not been so fortunate, but with his glasses gone he spend his time in the infirmary curled up in his bed, his hands pressed over his eyes. Over and over he played the attack in his mind, wondering if the battle would have gone different, if the death toll might not have been so high if he hadn’t just stood there like an _idiot_ and had to be _saved_ because he was too scared to run. Or fight.

Though had he not frozen, he probably would have just run.

Liam knew he was not allowed to use his Chain. He was not allowed to _fight_. But even if he couldn’t use his Chain, surely he could have done something more than stand there, just like he could do more now than lie here, afraid to open his eyes.

But he was too scared to try.

The next day there was a case with a new pair of glasses on his bedside table in the infirmary, and when he fumbled them on, they felt, somehow, slightly different. He didn’t really take much notice; he was too busy feeling ashamed of his actions.

Liam was not shaken out of his shame when the agent that wielded the Breadandbutter-fly thanked him personally for saving his life. He’d only been in danger because of _him_ in the first place, after all.

He wanted to be useful to Pandora, not a burden.

 

\----------------------------------------------

 

His master looked down at him from the sixth step of the main staircase. 

Liam had been sent back to the Barma household by his superiors, some time away from his work they had thought would do him good.

But truthfully, Liam would have rather been at his desk at Pandora headquarters, up to his neck in work than ‘home’, with his master staring down at him with scorn in his eyes. Duke Barma paced down the steps and stood, frowning down at him from inches away. He reached out and turned Liam’s head slightly to the side, the better to look at the healing slash on his temple.

Then he sniffed, pushing him slightly so he staggered back a few steps, lost his balance and fell, catching himself on the hands he quickly threw behind him.

“You would be even more useless to me if you get killed.” Rufus Barma said, before he turned and began to walk away.

“Wait, master, I--” Liam lurched to his feet and reached for his master’s sleeve, but before he could grab it the Duke dissipated into dust. It was an illusion all along.

Liam jerked his hand back as if it had been burned.

From the top of the staircase came a sigh.

Looking up, Liam saw his master --or was it another illusion?-- standing there. “Useless.” sniffed Duke Barma, sparing only one disdainful look for his servant before he walked away into the mansion.

 

\----------------------------------------------

 

March Hare whispered, _“If my Hatter had been here we could have easily defeated that upstart rabbit.”_

_“I miss my Hatter…”_

_“Where is Hatter…”_

_“Hatter…”_

 

\----------------------------------------------

**TBC**


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Next chapter Break makes his appearance, I’m certainly excited for that, since we all remember how that went in the manga! For anyone who’s have trouble keeping track (I did and am) Liam starts this chapter at fourteen, and ends it a seventeen. I when I wrote this I assumed he was about thirty-one in the present day manga, which turned out to be inaccurate but, hey, hindsight is best.

**Part One**

**Chapter Five**

\----------------------------------------------------

 

He tried to make rational sense of the monsters he _saw_ , leading to endless piles of scribbles in his rooms. He drew the Dodo, he drew Lady Cheryl’s chain, he drew the Breadandbutter-fly, he drew Lady Shelly’s chain, he even drew the briefly seen B-Rabbit, he drew them all, trying to understand what exactly it was he saw. He thought that if he understood the shape of what it was he _saw_ he might fear it less.

But Liam never drew his own chain.

That was secret.

 

\----------------------------------------------

 

Over the next four years he worked carefully at making the monsters familiar.

He would slip the glasses a little off his nose and cautiously peer over them at the members of Pandora and the monsters, the _chains_ , hovering around them, catching brief glimpses of them before he shoved his glasses back into place. Eventually he even got good enough that could take his glasses off and clean them, all without causing a scene. No fainting or screaming at all.

The other people in the organization did not fear the mons-- _Chains_ , they respected them, were wary of them, but did not fear them.

So he could learn not to as well.

He would make himself not fear them because he would not let fear paralyze him like it had with B-Rabbit.

Even if no one else _saw_ quite as he did, Liam would not be afraid anymore.

At least, not of monsters.

 

\----------------------------------------------

 

_“Hatter?”_

_“Hatter…”_

 

\----------------------------------------------

 

Only a few in Pandora knew that young Liam wielded the March Hare, those few being among the top ranks of the organization.

Among the rest of the group it was assumed that he had none, especially since he never showed any sign of having made a contract. This was not something that weighed all to heavily against him, after all, the members argued, who could expect a child of fourteen to be trusted to control a chain?

But as he grew to seventeen and there was still no sign of a contract, the understanding turned to pity. Poor clever, organized Liam, with his quick mind and even quicker temper (when it came to people being fools, of course). It was supposed that in spite of all his skills, he must have some hidden fault, some failing of character, which made him too weak to wield a Chain.

Some speculated that perhaps it was his poor vision that kept him from active service in Pandora and relegated to an eternity of paperwork. After all, he must be next thing to blind without his glasses, as whenever he took them off he stood very still until they were back on his nose, and once when they were knocked from his face by an careless elbow, he went absolutely white and fumbled rather frantically on the ground for the lost frames.

But despite his lack of a Chain Liam became known in Pandora for his diligence and intelligence and especially for his complete, and occasionally brutal, honesty.

 

\----------------------------------------------

 

March Hare’s voice had faded to little more than a whisper in the back of his head.

_“Hatter?”_

_“Ha…tter…”_

 

\----------------------------------------------

 

_“People are wondering,”_

 

_“Let them wonder.”_

 

_“But should they pry…”_

 

_“Yes, if they pry…”_

 

_“Well, he shall not tell them,”_

 

_“Ah, so there is no danger.”_

 

_“Well…”_

 

_“Oh, true.”_

 

_“The Mad Hatter still might come.”_

 

_“That would be bad.”_

 

_“Yes, very,”_

 

_“Very,”_

 

_“_ Bad _.”_

\----------------------------------------------

**TBC**


	6. Chapter 6

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> At last Break, there you are. Have fun with your dramatic entrance.

**Part One** ****

**Chapter Six**

\-------------------------------------------------

 

Then the man arrived.

Technically Liam and Lady Sharon were not supposed to go this close to the Rainsworth Door, but young Sharon was curious and Liam thought it would be safe as long as they did not get too close. And it was quite likely that Lady Sharon would go into Pandora, just as her mother and grandmother, so eventually she too would come to this Door to make a contact. It couldn’t hurt for her to be at least familiar with the place.

He wished he could have seen the Door a few times before he went to make a contract.

“So this is it,” Miss Sharon, very solemn for a six-year-old, staring hard at the door, then tilting her head back so she could follow the line of the door, all the way up. “It’s very big. Is the one in the Barma Door this big?”

“Yes,” he said. “It looks a lot like this one.” It was so cold this far down that their breath misted out in front of them and he’d made them both wear coats.

“Oh,” she took a step toward the Door, her hand extended as if she was going to touch it.

He was about to catch her shoulder and pull her back from the door, letting the only daughter of the Rainsworth house be sucked into the Abyss would be a Not Good thing, when--

_“Master, something is coming.”_

It had been so long since March Hare had said more than ‘Hatter’ to him that Liam took a moment to actually realize that the chain had said something else.

_“Something comes from the Abyss, master.”_

Liam’s head snapped up and he grabbed Lady Sharon, pulling her back from the Door just as--

_“Master look out!”_

\--as March Hare manifested, completely uncalled for, and grabbed him, yanking both him and Lady Sharon back from the Door so hard they ended up on the far side of the room. There March Hare carefully sat him down then vanished in a swirl of a tattered tailcoat.

“What was--” Miss Sharon, still clutched in his arms, began, but she was cut off when dark tendrils exploded out of the Door, raking the floor exactly where they had stood moments before.

“Something’s coming,” Liam murmured, echoing March Hare’s words. He set Lady Sharon down but made sure to keep himself between her and the Door. “Something from the Abyss.”

And that was when the man with the bloody eye fell out of the Door.

“Please hurry here! Someone’s collapsed here, covered in blood!”

“It’s dangerous, _wait_ \-- Miss Sharon!”

 

\----------------------------------------------

 

_“Did you hear?”_

 

_“Yes, did you hear?”_

 

_“About the man,”_

 

_“Yes, the man,”_

 

_“The man that fell from the Abyss,”_

 

_“He is trouble.”_

 

\----------------------------------------------

 

“You saved me, March Hare.”

 

_“…”_

 

“Those tendrils would have pulled Miss Sharon and I into the Abyss before we knew what happened. But I thought that…”

 

_“I do not like the Abyss.”_

 

“But--”

 

_“I much prefer this to there. If master died I would be forced to return there.”_

 

“Oh. Well, thank you, regardless.”

 

_“Of course master. But, I miss Ha--”_

 

\----------------------------------------------

**TBC**


	7. Chapter 7

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Now we’re getting into scenes that are actually in the manga, which are rather difficult, especially the scene that comes after Vincent’s chat with Break. But writing slightly deranged Break turned out to be pretty entertaining.

**Part One**

**Chapter Seven**

\---------------------------------------------------------

 

 

Even though Liam was quickly called back to Pandora on business not long after the man from the Abyss --he had not woken yet and so they did not know his name-- was taken in by the Rainsworth house, rumors of the man found their way back to Pandora headquarters.

Of course, the man _had_ fallen from the Abyss with a bloody hole where his left eye had been, so it was no surprise that rumors about him flew thick and fast in Pandora.

Some said that since he had hair was white as a ghost he must be one, a ghost that could drift from the Abyss to their world at will. Some said that he was a chain, a powerful one, so powerful that he was able to tear his way from the Abyss without a master, like B-Rabbit could. Some said that… well, the rumors only became more ridiculous from there.

Whenever Liam heard one he merely shook his head, to his mind, there was nothing sillier than groundless speculation and gossip. Besides, Lady Shelly had asked if he could visit the Rainsworth house again, Sharon missed him, she had said, and he would be able to see the man again and ask him how exactly he had ended up in front of the Rainsworth Door with only one eye.

 

\----------------------------------------------

 

It didn’t go how Liam had expected it. Not at all.

He’d followed the little pockets of gossip through the Rainsworth house until he found the man sitting on a windowsill. He paused, letting the two servants he had been discreetly following in hopes they would lead him to the man pass out of the room, still absorbed in speculation on the newcomer’s identity.

He looked better than when Liam had last seen him, his eye bandaged, but even as he watched him the man lifted a hand to the wound. To his horror Lima saw the man rather vaguely part the bandages and push his fingers into the empty socket, as if he was looking for the eye that had been there. The man didn’t even seem to realize he was tearing his wound open, blood dripping out over his eyelids and onto his hand.

“Stop it!” The words tore themselves from his throat. Unable to watch anymore Liam ran for the window and yanked the man’s arm down, “You can’t do that--”

The man pushed him away with surprising strength, the shove hard enough that he fell against the floor and his glasses clattered away. “ _Noisy_.” the man snarled. “Leave me alone,” he glared at him, “Don’t come near me. Don’t-- _don’t look at me!”_

But Liam couldn’t stop staring at the man in utter shock. Because without his glasses he _saw_. And while the rest of the world was indistinct blurs of color he _saw_ the man crystal clear.

He was as clear and vivid as those with Chains were to him, but Liam could plainly see that this angry, bleeding --and possibly insane-- man had no Chain to his command.

As if the man sensed what he _saw_ he lurched from his seat, as if he meant to hit him, but as soon as he got to his feet he hissed in pain and fell back against the wall. Sliding to the floor, not it seemed, by choice, his legs seemed to not be strong enough to hold him, and he pressed his hands to his lost eye.

“Are… are you alright?” Liam asked, cautiously, not daring move from where he had fallen on the floor. This man was so like a wounded animal he was sure if he moved he’d startle him and possibly get one of them harmed.

“Leave me alone!” the man snapped, glaring through him fingers at him.

And then Lady Shelly appeared, young Lady Sharon just behind her, clutching her mother’s skirts.

“Mama!” she immediately pointed at the glasses on the ground. She didn’t know their actual purpose but she knew that it was very important that he always wore them.

Lady Shelly picked up the glasses, gently replacing them on Liam’s face and giving him a reassuring smile. 

Then she went down to her knees a careful distance from the man and turned that same warm smile on him. “Good morning, Xerxes. You should really get those bandages changed.”

Climbing to his feet Liam watched her coax the man into coming with her with surprise.

“Are you okay, Mister Liam?” Sharon asked him.

“I--” he glanced after the man who _should_ have a chain but didn’t, then shook his head. “Yes. Yes, I am.”

 

\----------------------------------------------

 

It had been fading lately, until the voice was just a whisper in the back of his mind.

_“Where…”_

_“Hatter…”_

 

\----------------------------------------------

 

He saw Lady Sharon running, crying, through the garden only three days later, and when he asked her what had happened she told him that she couldn’t find Xarks-nii --her own personal name for the odd man-- no matter where she looked.

A quick re-search of the mansion affirmed the fact that the man was definitely not there.

“Where could he be?” Lady Sharon fretted. “Xarks-nii isn’t well enough to go out in this weather but we can’t find him inside anywhere.”

Outside the snow was falling in drifts against the doors, so deep that Liam had to kick the door to get it the rest of the way open when they went to search in the grounds.

It took them two hours to find where the man had gotten off to. They found him by the cemetery on the edge of the estate, of all places, with only a thin coat to guard against the cold and a frown on his face as he stared at a line of footprints that led off into the distance.

“Xarks-nii!” Lady Sharon was quick to dash to his side.

And as she patted his head with relief, and Liam lectured him about going out without _telling_ anyone, the man smiled at the little girl and ignored him completely.

It was the first time Liam had ever seen him smile. He hadn’t thought that it was possible

 

\----------------------------------------------

**TBC**


	8. Chapter 8

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> While Break has been introduced already, this is Mad Hatter making his own grand entrance, which was quite fun. Which is what made this chapter fun. And note the earrings. No really in the manga they’re not there and then they are. I had to wonder about that, which was one of the ideas that grew into the bones of this fic.

**Part One** ****

**Chapter Eight**

\---------------------------------------------------

 

Three months later Liam glimpsed the man, Xerxes Break apparently --he was positive that was a made up name-- going down through the Barma household with a crowd of people in the direction of the house’s Door.

If the rather disturbingly bright smile Xerxes Break aimed in his direction when he glimpsed him was any indication, the rumors about prolonged exposure to Lady Shelly’s kindness had softening his rage and smoothing over his bitterness were true.

And so was the one about him joining Pandora.

Silently Liam watched the group disappear into the depths of the house, wondering exactly why a man who had been thrown from the Abyss’ first wish was to go face it again. It made little sense to him, but if Xerxes Break wanted to become an agent for Pandora under the sponsorship of the Rainsworths, then apparently that was what he was going to get.

Liam just hoped that he’d survive it.

And then wondered why he had.

 

\----------------------------------------------

 

“Well, how about it then?” said the one eyed man to the chain.

 

_“I am looking for someone on the other side.”_ the chain said to the one eyed man. _“Or I would destroy you like I have most of the others who are stupid enough to try to contract with me.”_

 

“And just who would that be? Perhaps we can come to a mutually beneficial deal.”

 

_“I must find my partner.”_

 

“…”

 

_“…”_

 

“Very well, I’ll help you in your quest if you’ll help me in mine.”

 

_“We have an agreement.”_

 

\----------------------------------------------

 

Two hours later Liam heard several people screaming from the floors below and the group that made their way down to the Door surged back up from below, panicked and blood stained.

And very much lacking Xerxes Break.

When he recognized a face in the crowd he plunged into the throng, reaching out to grab his master’s sleeve. “Duke Barma, sir, what _happened?”_

He wasn’t supposed to be addressing anyone but the illusion Duke as Barma, but in this chaos no one would notice.

But when Barma saw him his expression went blank with shock for a moment, then it went grim and he drew his steel fan. Liam saw him bring his arm back, then he swung and everything… everything went black.

 

\----------------------------------------------

 

_“Good god, what a disaster!”_

 

_“Are we sure he’s made a contract with Hatter?”_

 

_“Positive.”_

 

_“This Break fellow almost obliterated all the other chains in the room!”_

 

_“Calm down, you’re shouting.”_

 

_“I should be shouting, this is a complete disaster!”_

 

_“What about the boy?”_

 

_“Yes, what about the boy?”_

 

_“Safely removed before Hatter found him. The removal was …err, a tad overhasty.”_

 

_“He’s still unconscious.”_

 

_“But_ what _are we going to do? Hatter and March Hare! If the two ever meet it will be a catastrophe!”_

 

_“Even more of catastrophe, you mean.”_

 

_“I knew that man would be trouble!”_

 

_“And you were certainly right.”_

 

_“So how do we keep the boy safe?”_

 

_“_ Can _we keep the boy safe?”_

 

_“We can try.”_

 

_“Ah, I suppose so.”_

 

_“That will have to do.”_

 

\----------------------------------------------

 

Liam woke slowly, the side of his head throbbing, not really sure where he was. A few blinks later he recognized where he was as his tiny room in the Pandora headquarters. And the person sitting in the chair beside the bed as Duke Barma.

“Sir?” he asked, completely dumfounded.

In response his master dropped a box into his lap. “Wear these.” he said.

“But--” Liam began, however Barma cut him off with an upraised hand. Liam flinched away from the hand and didn’t try to ask anything else.

“Don’t take them off.” he said, rising from his chair. At the door to his room the Duke turned back, “And try to stay away from Xerxes Break. You are rather useless, but you would be more so if you got yourself killed.” and with that he left.

When Liam opened the box he found a pair of earrings inside. They were tiny metal rings with short ribbons attaching them to hooks for the ears and when he picked them up he could feel some sort of pattern embroidered onto the ribbon with the same color thread as the ribbon.

He had had his ears pierced a few weeks ago --a rather juvenile bet with one of the Pandora agent, which he’d won-- but he hadn’t ever worn earrings like these.

And, strangely enough, when he put them in the whispers, the ones from March Hare in the back of his mind, went completely silent.

 

\----------------------------------------------

 

_“Hat--”_

 

_“Ha--”_

 

_“H--”_

 

_“…”_

 

What was it that March Hare had always said?

He couldn’t remember, for some reason.

 

\----------------------------------------------

**TBC**


	9. Chapter 9

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A long chapter, it took more pages than I expected to get where I wanted to be at the end of this chapter. We’re wrapping up part one here and are almost into part two, where we finally catch up to manga time.

**Part One**

**Chapter Nine**

\---------------------------------------------

 

As it turned out, Xerxes Break proved completely impossible to avoid.

The office he was given was just across the hallway form Liam’s own and, more often than not, the man drifted across the hall and into his office. Liam didn’t particularly like these visits from Break --when had he gotten used to thinking of him so causally?-- because he was loud and distracting and it irritated him when Break started munching bright candies.

And when he finally got the annoying man to go away he left behind multi-colored wrappers on his floor and a stack of paperwork that by rights _Break_ should have done on his desk.

Honestly, the man was insufferable, completely insufferable. All Liam could do was sigh and shake his head and try not to strangle him out of shear annoyance.

 

\----------------------------------------------

 

_“Did you see?”_

 

_“Ah, yes, did you see?”_

 

_“Yes, I saw.”_

 

_“I thought he was told to stay away from Hatter?”_

 

_“No one told Hatter to stay away from_ him _.”_

 

_“Oh.”_

 

_“I see.”_

 

_“No wonder we have a problem.”_

 

_“And our control over Xerxes Break is not as strong as we could wish it to be.”_

 

_“Should we warn Hatter away from him?”_

 

_“No.”_

 

_“We do not want to draw Hatter’s attention to the boy.”_

 

_“True.”_

 

_“Very true.”_

 

_“And with March Hare bound so tightly…”_

 

_“Yes, we should be safe.”_

 

_“It is not_ we _I am worried about.”_

 

\----------------------------------------------

 

While Break drove him almost mad at times, he had an odd streak of kindness in him. One had look carefully to see it, but Liam by now knew the man well enough to catch it.

His infallible proof of this was the time he came back from the Barma household, having been summoned to receive a lecture from the Duke himself --a very angry Duke, who wanted him to _stay away_ from Break for some reason-- wincing at his swollen and bruised left hand (the hand he had thrown over his head to protect it from his master’s fan) and he found a tiny pot of salve on his desk.

Salve that, according to the label, had herbs to make any swelling go down.

Salve that, oddly enough, had been wrapped in a handkerchief to protect it. A handkerchief that looked very much like Break’s.

And though there was no way Break could have known that Duke Barma would have… well, there was no way he could have known about that, but there was no one else Liam knew whose handkerchief was stained purple, blue, and pink from melted candies.

And while he spent the winter holiday on the Rainsworth estate, on an invitation from Lady Sharon, who missed her childhood playmate, Break had asked how his hand was with a suspiciously knowing smile on his face.

Case and point.

 

\----------------------------------------------

 

It was only when Break introduced him to a new Pandora recruit as his ‘friend’ that Liam realized that even though Break irked him more often than not, he was his friend when all the cards were down.

He tolerated Break, for reasons he didn’t fully understand.

Of course that meant that he ended with a lot of sweets wrappers on his office floor.

 

\----------------------------------------------

 

Not that having Break as a ‘friend’ didn’t come with a certain amount of risk, the cases he took of tended toward the insanely dangerous, not only to him but also to anyone working with him. Even years after joining Pandora he still dragged Liam into a good amount of trouble with him.

Still, it wasn’t until the case that ended up with Liam being choked by the Chain of an illegal contractor (the last time Liam _ever_ agreed to do Break’s paperwork in the field for him), the Chain’s stench of fish and rot choking him almost as much as the scaled hands, that Liam saw Break’s chain.

Mad Hatter.

It only took three seconds for the fearsome chain to demolish the Fish-Footman Chain completely but for Liam it was the most terrifying thing he had ever seen.

When he was a child he had thought that Chains were monsters.

He had been right. 

Mad Hatter was a monster to beat all monsters and Liam was relieved beyond words that it vanished before it could turn that massive eye on _him_.

Break grabbed him as the Chain dropped him and kept him from falling over as he hacked for air.

“You still alive?” he asked, casually, as if he was asking him to pass the cake plate during tea.

“Yes.” Liam snapped. “And how is it—” he winced and rubbed this throat, “—that you, Xerxes Break, always come out of these things smelling like roses? Your clothes aren’t even mussed.”

Break grinned. “A gift. One that--” but he broke off, making a noise like he was the one being choked.

“Break…?”

And then he began to cough.

That too was the first time Liam realized that there really was something _wrong_ with Break. Because he had ever heard of someone sent into fits by the use of their chain.

 

\----------------------------------------------

 

_“Familiar.”_

 

“What was that, Hatter?”

 

_“Something about_ him _. It’s… familiar.”_

 

“Whatever would that be?”

 

_“…”_

 

“I see.”

 

\----------------------------------------------

 

No one was especially surprised when Lady Sharon decided to go into Pandora once she turned thirteen and was deemed old enough for the work.

Liam was among those who she asked to wait at the top of the stairs down to the Rainsworth Door, along with Break.

“I’m not too familiar with this process,” Break murmured from the corner of his mouth, “But when I did it I remember being accompanied down the the Door when I made my contract.”

“You were new to Pandora,” Liam muttered back, “And somehow I get the feeling you weren’t all that trusted.”

Break’s smile was quite wicked. “Ah, that would explain it then. Should she have been down there this long?”

Liam jut shrugged, remembering his own experiences in the dark at the Barma Door and shivering. Those were not remarks he particularly wanted to make.

The sound of a step on the stairs made both of them look up.

Dirty and sweat soaked Lady Sharon staggered into view and Break quickly stepped down to keep her from falling. Just behind him was Lady Shelly, who braced her daughter on the other side, asking, “Which Chain?” anxiously.

“Eques.”

A sigh of relief blew through the group of Pandora representatives, that had been the Chain that she had been told to call for. As she was exhausted from the contract and absorbing the Chain she was escorted to her rooms by a her mother and several other agents.

“She’s rather young to have a Chain.” Break said, thoughtfully.

“I don’t know,” Liam replied, “I was younger when--” he stopped abruptly.

Turning to him Break graced him with that horribly smug smile he had when he’d just gotten something out of someone they hadn’t planned on telling him. “So you _do_ have a Chain.”

Liam quickly shook his head --he knew the common theory about him among the other agents-- and walked away before Break could trick more things he wasn’t supposed to talk about out of him.

 

\----------------------------------------------

 

_“They are drawn to each other.”_

 

_“Yes, I’ve noticed.”_

 

_“It should be safe.”_

 

_“Yes, as long as March Hare does not emerge.”_

 

_“But what if--”_

 

_“Yes, that is true, what if--”_

 

_“It is a risk.”_

 

_“Then we must separate them.”_

 

_“Talk to Xerxes Break, we dare not let Liam suspect anything.”_

 

_“You are assuming Xerxes Break will listen to us.”_

 

_“He will not?”_

 

_“He might not.”_

 

_“Very well, let us,”_

 

_“Yes, let us,”_

 

_“Make sure to keep those two apart.”_

 

_“Wait; let us see if events do not take care of it themselves.”_

 

\----------------------------------------------

 

Liam could always tell when Break was working on a important mission. He usually disappeared from Pandora for a few days and then he would appear in Liam’s office with an even  smugger grin than usual. Or if it was something really big the grin would proportionally grow.

Around the time that the young Vessalius heir went missing  --or dead or condemned to the Abyss, stories varied-- Break was nigh on impossible to locate, much to Liam’s frustration, since he had a great deal of paperwork that belonged to him by rights. And when he finally turned up again his grin was so self satisfied Liam just threw a pile of papers at him, rather then even attempt to play his game and ask what he had been up to. The papers had been tied into that stack so the blow they would have dealt him over the head would have been hefty, had Break not caught the papers mid-flight. Able to take a hint if it was as direct as that Break made himself scarce again.

Or maybe he just went back to whatever project he was working on so intently with Lady Sharon. If Liam was careful about how he asked, he might just figure out what they were up to. 

But it was more likely that Break would just lie. He had a bad habit of doing that lately.

 

\----------------------------------------------

**TBC**


	10. Chapter 10

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This finishes off part one, but part two should be coming along close behind. We’re about to make the ten year jump of Oz’s time in the Abyss, though this chapter takes place about six years into it.

**Part One**

**Chapter Ten**

\---------------------------------------------

 

Six years later Liam ended up on the field again, as the head of the support staff for a large group that ventured out to subdue a Chain that had a history of being particularly vicious and had already helped its contractor slaughter fifty people before it and he fled into the countryside. Among the party were a few familiar faces, agents he knew quite well or had worked with before, Break and Lady Sharon had apparently been pulled off of whatever mysterious project they had been working on to help deal with the crisis, and even Gilbert --who Liam had had little contact with as he was often away with Break and Lady Sharon though he had heard much of the scandal the boy’s abandonment of the Nightray house once he made a contract with the Raven Chain-- had been put in the field, in spite of the fact that his power was so destructive and difficult to control that he could just as easily kill them as the enemy.

There were a good many new faces too, the newer agents that Pandora had recruited, some with only a few weeks, or a few months, or experience under their belts. Many of them would be dead by the end of the mission.

It was three weeks of hell before they finally killed the illegal contractor, three weeks of camping in freezing rains out in the unforgiving countryside with rations that were waterlogged and moldy and mud everywhere and dampness that seemed to seep into their very bones.

Liam hated having to recopy reports, but it was near impossible to keep anything dry in the weather they had, --someone in supplies was going to get a very stern lecture from him about buying cheap, badly waterproofed tents when he got back to Pandora-- and eventually he gave up, renting space in the inn of the nearest town, some twenty miles away from their campsite, for the secretaries. While this made them difficult to access should the need for information arise, at least they and the documents were out of the worst of the weather and also very safely out of the line of fire.

That last part became very important when the illegal contractor started night attacks on their camp, slinking in to kill a few people before vanishing into the night again. Reports still had to be delivered and copied and sent back to headquarters, so Liam took the reports himself from the agents returning from the skirmishes with the contractor and, securing that papers in the only waterproof case anyone could find, delivered them to the secretaries in town personally so as to make sure nothing befell them.

As the attacks and small skirmishes increased, the Chain was very good at stealthy attacks and quick retreats so they were having trouble pinning them, the number of reports required increased and Liam made at least four trips to the town on horseback a day. He spent the entirety of the daylight hours splattered with mud and when night fell and the roads were too unsafe to ride he just stayed wherever he had been stranded, in town or at the camp.

Because he was on the road so much and _alone_ on the road at that, it was probably inevitable that the lurking contractor would take the opportunity to take out another member of Pandora.

Liam had to draw up quickly to avoid running Break down when the man stepped out onto the road in front of him. 

“Break, what are you doing this far from camp?” he demanded, as his horse pranced, annoyed at being drawn up short.

“I could say the same for you.” Break tipped the wide-brimmed hat he wore to shed ever present rain back so he could grin up at him. “You’re awfully far from camp and its getting dark.  The Baby,” the Chain that they had been trying to eliminate, “might try to attack when you’re alone.”

About to reply, Liam was distracted as his horse tried to rear. Quickly Break reached out and grabbed the horse’s bridle and yanked its head down so it never managed it. The horse tried frantically to pull away from Break and Liam had to clutch at the pommel to keep his seat.

“He’s been steady this entire time!” Liam almost lost his grip on the reigns as the horse thrashed to try to loose it’s head. “I don’t know what’s gotten into him all of the sudden!”

“No idea.” Break muttered; somehow he was still holding the horse’s bridle even though had Liam been in his place he would have long been thrown aside. “Stop that you stupid beast.”

“Liam!” a voice shouted from farther down the road. “Quick, get away from it!”

When Liam looked up there was another Xerxes Break. This one was running toward him, unsheathing the sword from his walking stick, with a furious expression on his face.

The Break that was holding the bridle looked up at him and grinned, the grin stretching across his face unnaturally far as his skin bulged and twisted away from its previous form. “Whoops.” he said, in a voice that no longer resembled Break’s. “Looks like I made a boo-boo.”

The Baby, the illegal contractor’s Chain, tricked its prey into a false sense of security by assuming the form of someone they knew. That was why they were having so much trouble catching it and how it had managed to kill so many of their people.

“Liam, get off the horse, and back to camp!” though he was still far from them Break threw his arm back and hurled his sword through the air, roughly aiming for where the impostor stood.

Still half in its assumed form and half out the Baby let go of the bridle and ran for the trees as Break’s sword fell short. The horse now reared fully, throwing  Liam off and into the mud of the road. His head connected with something hard, he distinctly felt his glasses leave his face and the world went fuzzy, then completely black.

 

\----------------------------------------------

 

At this point Liam had been knocked out many a time and was very used to the blurry, half awake way the eyes saw things as they waited for the brain to catch up with them after they opened again. He was not used to seeing the Mad Hatter Chain looming over him, large eye not inches from his own, so close some of the ribbons steaming from his massive hat were tickling his nose.

_“I_ know _you.”_ the Chain murmured.

His glasses were off so the the rest of the world was only a colored blur but Mad Hatter was crystal clear because Chains were never blurred to his eyes. Had he thought to take his glasses off when the Baby had first approached him he would have spotted the thing in a moment.

_“How do I know you?”_ Mad Hatter demanded. _“How can a human be so familiar?”_

“Hatter, I don’t need you anymore. Go away.” Break’s voice seemed a bit strained, but hearing it made the Chain give what almost sounded like a sigh and it vanished.

The rain that the Chain had been blocking pattered down onto Liam’s face as he debated the likelihood of passing out again. It had seemed like it would look right _though_ him, as if it was looking for something.

“You know, for a man who is next to blind without these things you manage to loose them quite often.” Break’s voice was almost normal again, just a slight thickness to it.

Liam lifted his head from the mud and _saw_ Hatter inside Break and, more importantly, that Break was fingering his glasses as he watched him thoughtfully.

“Give me those,” Liam said automatically, prying himself from the mud enough to sit up  and holding an arm out to him. “What happened? Where’s the other Chain?”

“Gone back to the Abyss with the contractor.” Break said as he dropped the glasses into Liam’s hand. “Or rather I kept him busy with Hatter and he ran out of time. The Abyss swallowed him and his Chain before I managed to kill either. Rather a shame that.”

“Only you would say that.” said Liam as he put his glasses back on just in time to see that Break was rather hastily scrubbing his chin with the back of his sleeve for some reason. “Anyone else would simply be thankful that the mission is finally over but you, Xerxes Break have to have--”

“Need a hand?” Break asked teasingly as Liam broke off to try to pry himself from the mud.

“Yes.” Liam admitted with irritation, reaching out to accept Break’s offered hand.

A moment before he could take the hand Break’s eye went wide and he abruptly used the hand to cover his mouth. He said something that sounded like, “Damn… not again.” The following coughs were wet and painful sounding.

Liam pried his way from the mud fully and frowned at the coughing man. Now that he was looking for it he could see blood stains on Break’s sleeve where he’d scrubbed it against his chin previously. Though Break tried to close his hand Liam quickly grabbed his fingers and forced them open to see the splatter of red on his palm.

“Are you sick?” Liam said. Then he shook his head. “No. No, that isn’t it, is it? You’ve done this before, only not as bad. I remember it was after… oh.” the logical conclusion was like lead weight in his gut. “Wielding Hatter is this much of a strain on you?” 

Pulling his sleeve down over his hand Break wiped a trickle of blood from the corner of his mouth. “Sometimes one could wish for you to be a little less perceptive, Liam.” he said, his voice again containing the thickness Liam had noticed before. “We should get back to camp, with the contractor gone we can finally go back to headquarters.” Break turned away and began to walk back along the road. “It might take some time on foot.”

“How long has this been going on?” Liam demanded, not following.

Break glanced back over his shoulder and smiled.

The sound of hooves in mud announced the arrival of a group of agents sent to find out why Break had yet to return from his scouting venture. Among them was both Lady Sharon --she hadn’t let them leave without her, seeing as it was her Xarks-nii that was missing-- and Gilbert.

It didn’t take long explain the Chain’s attack and the contractor’s banishment to the Abyss to them and they soon were riding back to camp, Liam and Break on the spare mounts the group had brought in case one of their horses twisted a leg on the treacherous road.

Both Lady Sharon and Break had their heads close together as they rode, conversing in low voices, no doubt already talking about whatever it was they had been plotting before this mission. Though after watching them for some minutes Liam concluded that it looked more as if Lady Sharon was scolding Break for something.

A gesture toward Break’s stained sleeve to make Liam sure. “She knows.” he murmured to himself. “She’s knows what’s happening to him.”

“What?” said Gilbert, who was riding nearby.

Liam shook his head, “Nothing.” he urged his horse to a slight fast pace to catch up to another agent he knew and began a conversation with him.

Gilbert watched him carefully, his golden eyes suspicious. The idiot Break had been right, Liam noticed far more than he should.

Then he shrugged to himself. They would be retrieving his master form the Abyss soon. Only a few more years of work.

What did it matter if Liam kept an even more watchful eye on them? He would never guess what they were attempting. He was hardly a threat.

Master Oz would be back soon.

Nothing else mattered more than that to him.

 

\----------------------------------------------

 

_“Xerxes Break is plotting something.”_

 

_“Yes, with Lady Sharon.”_

 

_“But what about--”_

 

_“Yes, has he…?”_

 

_“No, Xerxes Break has shown no sign of trying to involve Liam.”_

 

_“We must prevent that.”_

 

_“Yes, we must.”_

 

_“Yes. Indeed.”_

 

_“Because otherwise,”_

 

_“Yes, otherwise,”_

 

_“He will get the boy--”_

 

_“Liam.”_

 

_“_ What _?”_

 

_“He is only a few years shy of thirty. ‘Boy’ seems inappropriate.”_

 

_“Fine then. Otherwise he will get_ Liam _into more danger than he is already in.”_

 

\----------------------------------------------

 

Sharon placed her teacup back onto the saucer with a small _click_. She turned to Break, a thoughtful look in her eyes, “You know, considering how close the time is for… things to get interesting we should really think about including Liam as we did Gilbert.”

“ _No_.” said Break, so fast that Sharon raised an eyebrow. Break quickly took a cake, bit into it, chewed, swallowed, and repeated much more calmly, “No.”

“It’s surprising hearing that from you. Liam could be quite useful to us. He has the trust of Pandora and access to much classified information.”

“No.” said Break for a third time. “He’s too close to Barma.”

“I don’t think he would willingly give us away to his master. Especially considering the _kind_ of master Rufus Barma is.”

“That isn’t what I meant.” Break said. He smiled at Sharon in the overly cheerful manner that told her he had absolutely no intention of continuing this line of conversation and would be very, very silly to divert her if she tired.

Years of partnership meant that Sharon could read all that as clear as day. She sighed and picked up her teacup again,

Break let the smile fall from his face and looked down at his own teacup, watching his reflection in the murky liquid quiver as he tapped the porcelain with his finger. He was afraid. Deep in his gut, one Xerxes Break, master of the Mad Hatter chain was utterly and completely terrified of one thing.

If he involved Liam in what he was planning, he was afraid what Barma would do to him.

He was afraid of getting his friend killed.

 

\----------------------------------------------

 

Quietly the Mad Hatter murmured to himself,

_“So familiar… so very familiar…”_

 

\----------------------------------------------

**End of Part One**


	11. Chapter 11

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Welcome to part two, thanks for following! Last chapter went six years into the ten year jump but here we’re going backwards and then forwards in time. How’s that for a headache? Also, here’s the manga scene where, as best as I recall, Liam made his first appearance.

**Part Two** ****

**Chapter Eleven**

\------------------------------------------------

 

The ten years since the young Vessalius heir vanished into the Abyss passed rather quickly for Liam, and there were full of startling events; Lady Sharon was promoted to full field agent, another assassination attempt on Duke Barma’s life (the third of five that would happen that year until they found the rebels and put an end to them), Lady Cheryl fell ill and now could only get about in a wheelchair, no sign was seen of the Vessalius heir, the Nightray household took in another orphan child, the first child they had adopted, Vincent, made a contract with Yamane and joined Pandora at age fourteen, Gilbert, his older brother and the other child taken in by the Nightrays managed to tame Raven at eighteen and then _left_ the family to join Pandora, under the sponsorship of Xerxes Break, the field case with the Baby took out most of the new recruits, and Break himself was often away from the headquarters on business that Liam could not needle out from him.

Liam spent most of those years buried in paperwork and the day to day dealings of the organization.  He did a bit of support fieldwork, but it wasn’t something he enjoyed and it seemed as if the high members of Pandora preferred he not do it as he was not often assigned to it unless an emergency occurred.

On his thirty-first birthday Liam was invited to the Rainsworth household --something Lady Sharon had done every year ever since she found out that there was no one in the Barma house who would even knew the day to celebrate it-- and Break seemed to make an art of avoiding him.

Though any time spent in the Rainsworth house was pleasant, Liam soon grew irritated with seeing Break whisk out of sight around the corner, annoyed with Break fleeing a room as soon as he entered, and tired of Break being just out of sight every time he tried to find him.

Liam was not a man of infinite patience. He soon gave up trying to speak to Break and just enjoyed time spent in a mansion where there weren’t illusions around every corner.

But Liam would have paid good money to know why Break, after so thoroughly engraining himself in Liam’s life, was suddenly so determined to detach himself from it.

 

\----------------------------------------------

 

Liam had not let the way that Break avoided him avidly get to him. …mostly.

And when, after months of not seeing him, Break just causally crawled out from under the tablecloth in that creepy way of not using doors he had Liam immediately tensed.

Break seemed just as surprised to see him as Liam. He recovered quickly though, waving one ridiculously long sleeve at him in a greeting so bizarrely cheerful that Liam actually winced away from it’s enthusiasm as, at the other end of the table, Lady Sharon watched Break with a rather sly smile on her face. She had become much more like Break in recent years, with her secretive ways and small, sly smile, the darkness that lurked behind Break’s smile seeming to leak into her as well.

Liam and Break bickered, they usually did that, but there was something else going on, something besides the news of Grim’s escape. There was a darker undercurrent to the conversations, even though Break seemed to be doing everything in him power to distract Liam from it, teasing him, stealing his cake, sprawling over the table like a manic.

“Currently the search for Grim is continuing within Pandora.” He said, trying gamely to ignore Break lying on the table in front of him.

“Maybe it’s already in Reveille?” Break mused, and then laughed a laugh so sinister that Liam felt all the little hairs on the back of his neck stand up. Break reached up to take a lock of Lady Sharon’s hair and pressed it to his lips, “Hey, Princess,” he murmured to her, “I get the feeling that something is about to get interesting,” His smile widened into something more like a self satisfied smirk which, after a moment, Lady Sharon shared.

For that moment they were contained together in a little bubble of shared knowledge as Liam sat nervously on the outside. Then, as if on cue, both dropped their smiles.

Lady Sharon went back to her tea and Break heaved himself off the table.

“Wait,” Liam protested, “What’s that supposed to mean?”

“Never you mind.” Lady Sharon  said. “Crumb cake, Mister Liam?” she offered a plate.

He shook his head. “No, thank you. But, Break,”

Break, who had been making his way out of the room paused and glanced back over his shoulder, “Hmm?”

“I know you’ve done something and whoever you sent, you should probably warn them that Lord Vincent and his Echo were sent by Pandora. They wouldn’t want to get in they way of those two.”

For an instant Break might have winced at the thought, then the expression was hidden again behind a wide grin. But Liam had seen and noted the wince. What he had just said had thrown a potential wrench into Break’s plans.

If only he could figure out what those were.

Of course, Lady Sharon was delightfully evasive on the subject for the rest of the visit and Liam went back to Pandora very irritated with the both of them.

Not too much later Break left paperwork on his desk --surprising in and of itself, since Break avoided doing paperwork whenever he could-- stating that Grim had been dispatched by Vincent and Echo, with the assistance of that Gilbert fellow that rather unsettled Liam with the way he followed Break around. Why Gilbert would have been in Reveille in the first place was something of a mystery, since Liam was fairly sure he would have known if he had been dispatched to the field.

He didn’t much like Gilbert, or, not he preferred to be called Raven now, didn't he? It was something about the way Break had a habit of making him not appear in paperwork, even when he _was_ there, that Liam didn’t like. And there was something in the edge of despair in the man’s gold eyes that was most definitely off putting.

But his brother… well, it was hard to know what to make of a man one found lying in the hallway dead asleep, with their servant arriving soon after to drag them off to their chambers on a disturbingly regular basis. Lord Vincent might have been a powerful contractor, but, like Break, it was hard to take the man seriously.

Well, until you saw his eyes and that sly way he smiled.

 

\----------------------------------------------

 

_“What the hell are the young Lady and that Hatter madman up to?”_

 

_“We don’t know.”_

 

_“We should, they_ are _supposed to work for us.”_

 

_“When I asked Lady Sharon she told me…”_

 

_“What?”_

 

_“Some ridiculousness about a private project,”_

 

_“Did you try to press for details?”_

 

_“I tried. She is very good at evading. I think Lord Gilbert has something to do with it.”_

 

_“Lord Gilbert too? We really do no know anything, do we?”_

 

_“Ah, what a mess,”_

 

_“Indeed.”_

 

_“_ What _a mess.”_

 

\----------------------------------------------

**TBC**


	12. Chapter 12

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Have another chapter to make up for how slow I’ve been taking posting this here!
> 
> It is interesting writing about a character who is completely out of the loop regarding Oz and his return. And a bit frustrating too. Cookies to anyone who can catch when in Pandora Hearts manga this takes place and the two references made to later scenes.

 

**Part Two**

**Chapter Twelve**

\-----------------------------------------------------

 

Finding Break sitting on his desk was not only surprising, but completely unexpected for Liam. The words, “What on earth are you doing here, Xerxes Break?” formed in his mind but he managed to smoother them and settled for, “What is it you want done?” He held out his hand for the inevitable pile of paperwork.

Break bit the end off the lollipop that he had been previously twirling in one hand and chewed it before answering, “Mind doing a bit of research for me? I know you do love the records room.”

He rolled his eyes. “I don’t. I just seem to be ending up there more and more these days. What is it that you want looked into?”

From an inner pocket Break drew a folded bit of paper. “This is a description of something a Pandora agent saw in a… ah, call it a bit of memory, from a Chain. Could be from very long ago so don’t even bother with records less than ten years old. I need to know where this is.”

Taking the paper Liam skimmed the description --it was in Raven’s handwriting, he was very good at recognizing handwritings-- and sighed. “This could take a while to identify. It could have been a vision of anywhere. A memory of a Chain you say?” he frowned at Break. “Should I even ask how you found a memory from of those creatures?”

“No.” Break broke another piece off his lollipop and busily crunched it in a manner that seemed to discourage further questions. “I’ll be busy for a bit, so should you turn up anything give it to Oscar.”

Liam blinked. “Lord Oscar? Lord Oscar _Vessalius_? I wasn’t aware he was…” _Conspiring with you,_ he added in his head but said aloud, “A close friend of yours.”

“He has, let me say, invested interest in my little project.” Break said, hopping off the desk.

“So does Raven?” hazarded Liam, glancing down at the paper in his hand again.

But, naturally, Break had vanished while he was looking away so he got no answer. Liam hated when he did that. 

 

\----------------------------------------------

 

It should have taken months to identify the description of the mansion that Raven had given. But Liam stumbled across a account of a minor lord’s visit to the Baskerville estate and found, to his surprise, that the description of the gardens and statues matched that in Raven’s report right down to the statues of angels holding rapiers in the entrance.

When he gave a copy of this account, with the pertinent information carefully underlined, to Lord Oscar the man read it with a very solemn face and when he finished it, went very pale.

“Interesting, isn’t it?” Liam commented, idly. “That scene is from almost a hundred years ago. I checked, the records show that three years after this account the gardens were badly damaged in some sort of accident and those statues clearly described were destroyed. Later accounts of the Baskerville gardens descries completely different statuary.”

Lord Oscar put the papers down on the table. “Y-yes. I agree. Very interesting.” and then had added very quickly, with the air of someone changing the subject, “How about a game of chess? I hear you’re very good.”

Two hours later, when Lord Oscar threw the game board into the air in frustration because he had been forced into checkmate for the sixth time in a row Liam had formed a bit of a  hypothesis. It was rough and very vague around the edges but it featured Break, Lady Sharon, Raven, Lord Oscar, and… if he was on the right track, the so called missing Vessalius heir. What had been his name? Oz, that was it. Oz Vessalius.

The hypothesis lacked major details, and he still needed to figure out questions like where the heir had been all these years and why Break wanted Pandora involved, but slightly ignorant, of the whole thing.

Of course it seemed that if Break had his way about things, Liam would never find any of these answers. Which meant that Liam was just going to have to be quiet and wait until he stumbled over more information.

 

\----------------------------------------------

**TBC**


	13. Chapter 13

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Apologies about the wait, real life got rather intense for a bit there.

**Part Two** ****

**Chapter Thirteen**

\-----------------------------------------------

 

“Mister Liam has been keeping an eye on me lately.” Oscar remarked to Break, who was sprawled in the chair across from him.

“Someday Liam is going to go fully blind from keeping an eye on so many people at the same time.” Break mused. He thought it was a distinct possibility since the list now included  him, Oscar, Lady Sharon, and Gilbert too. “That has to be bad for his eyes.” 

Break had gotten along quite well with Oscar Vessalius for many years; the man was remarkably like him, though his technique was slight different. Oscar had long ago found out that being friendly and affable and easy to talk to put people off balance and when someone was off balance it was much easier to get them to tell you all kinds of interesting things and so he spent his days being a jolly, friendly man who listened very closely as he smiled disarmingly.

“Do you think that he knows what we’re up to?” Oscar asked. 

“I wouldn’t put it past him to have all kinds of suspicions about what we’re up to but there’s no way he can know anything for sure.” reaching into a pocket Break removed a tin of candies and unscrewed it. “He’ll wonder and ponder but there’s no way for him to find out about it. At least, not until we let him.”

“That’s true,” Oscar agreed. “We’ve made Oz’s presence here very quiet but we aren’t going to be able to keep him and B-Rabbit secret for very long. If we reveal them soon then Mister Liam’s suspicions won’t be a problem.”

Popping a candy into his mouth Break said, “It’s not time to tell Pandora yet. They’ll be scandalized and outraged when they find out and demand an investigation on Oz and B-Rabbit and that will take _ages_. And besides,” he cocked his head to the side as if he heard something, “There’s a little matter I want to clear up before that.”

For a moment, Oscar could have sworn he heard a chiming, like a bell ringing, but when he listened for it again he couldn’t hear it.

The hint of a smile quirked up the edge of Break’s lips and he murmured something that sounded rather like, “Here kitty, kitty,” to himself. Then he shook his head and seemed to come back to the present, eating another candy noisily.

“Sharon tells me that you left Liam out the matter of Oz on purpose.” said Oscar, sensing, as he was apt to, that a slight subject change was in order. “That seems strange for you. He’d be useful, why not use him?”

“Because I don’t want Liam involved in this if at all possible.” said Break, and his tone was just a bit sharper than normal. “I wouldn’t have even asked him to research that memory if there was if we hadn’t needed to know where B-Rabbit’s memory was from as soon as possible. Had there been anyone better at quick research I would have gone to them.”

“Why don’t you want him involved? If he knew what we were doing then we wouldn’t have to worry about him poking around and making a mess of things.”

“No.”

Oscar sighed, slumping back in his couch. “I should have known that once you’ve made up your mind there’s no talking you around. But there’s something else that has been on my mind.”

“What?” Break popped a candy into his mouth. 

“Vincent.” said Oscar and Break bit the candy hard enough to crack it loudly in half. “He’s known about Oz since that case with Grim and I’m not sure if I trust him to stay quiet.”

“Of course. The _rat_ ,” Break almost hissed the last word. “He could be troubling. I will be busy soon, I’ll need you keep an eye on him.”

“Busy with what?”

But Break just smiled and the cocked his head to the side like he had before, listening to something that Oscar couldn’t hear. This time Oscar definitely caught the words, “Here kitty, cat.” when Break murmured them.

All the little hairs on the back of Oscar’s neck stood up and he could have sworn he heard the jingling of a little bell. It did sound very like the kind of bell a cat would have on its collar.

 

\----------------------------------------------

 

Sharon leaned a hip against the table and smiled at Liam. “It seems like every time I want to find you I either find you in your office or here, buried in these old records. What could you possibly be looking for this time?”

“I’m researching, as usual.” Liam replied, closing the heavy book that he had been skimming with a sigh. “It seems every time someone wants something found in the records the paperwork for it find its way to my desk.”

“That is exactly what you get for letting people realize how good you are at doing research. As far as I have seen the reward for work done well is twice as much work,” she picked up a piece of paper with Liam’s neat handwriting on it and frowned to see it only contained a list of dates, many with question marks next to them, and what looked like a tentative list of names. “What is this?”

“Some notes about a Chain that I’ve been trying to research.”

“Which Chain?”

He took the paper from her, and carefully put is aside. “The March Hare.”

“Who wants information of that particular Chain?”

“No one. It’s a bit of personal research.”

“Oh really?” said Sharon, a girl with very sharp childhood memory. And a girl with an especially good memory of the day that Break had been thrown from the Abyss. “Why such interest in that Chain?”

“Irregularities.” Liam explained. “I’ve… heard a few people say March Hare is a particularly unique Chain, so I thought that I would keep an eye out as I looked through the records for any mention of it.”

“I’ve heard similar rumors, but it seems that you weren’t able to find much mention of March Hare.”

“It’s not quite that. Look at this,” Liam went to the shelves and brought back a large, battered book, which he opened on the table, “I found the name of a member of Pandora that had made a contract with March Hare on this page,” he indicated it, “but look at the binding here, several pages have been removed and the next page remaining has no mention of March Hare.”

“That is odd. Does this occur every time March Hare is mentioned in the records?” she asked.

“Yes. Look,” he took three more books from the shelves and opened two of them to show that pages were missing. “When I noticed it in that book I kept an eye out for missing pages and keep finding them in the records. And that isn’t all. There’s this too,” he opened the last tome to the very back. “These blank pages here were added after; long after, (see the difference in the color of the pages?) the book was bound.”

Sharon took the heavy book for herself and considered the additional pages, “That’s quite a lot.”

“Yes, that means that someone must have removed some pages, taken all of the rest out of the binding, added the extra pages to the back and rebound the rest so that there was no visible gap between the first and last of the original pages.”

“How many books have you found altered? Have you kept track?”

“Yes and it’s enough to make me wonder why someone would go to the bother. And there’s little consistency in the kind of book that has been tampered with; I’ve found personal accounts, general Pandora records, and even journals by nobles or Pandora contractors, all levels off records. I can only presume that each of the removed pages had something to do with the March Hare chain.”

“How very odd.” Sharon took the paper with the lists of dates from the table again and noted it was worn and slightly crumpled, obviously years old. “You make a good point, who would go to all this trouble? Have you asked the Master of Records?”

“Yes, he says that he knew nothing about the removal of the records.”

Sharon raised an eyebrow, “Do you think he was lying?”

“It’s possible.” Liam shrugged. “But I spend enough time here that I hardly wish to offend the Master of Records by implying he lies.”

“Sensible. Now,” Sharon sighed, “There’s a meeting by rights I should be attending. I should at least make an appearance when it begins.” she glanced at the paper in her hand, and then put it back on the table. “I certainly hope you find a answer to this little mystery. I’d like to know if you do.”

Liam was already turning back to his books. “Of course, of course.”

Once out in the hall Sharon shook her head _\--a tattered patchwork tailcoat, a jagged, broken smile, all of these glimpsed briefly as the chain dragged her and Liam away from danger._ She had a very good childhood memory. And if that wasn’t March Hare… she bit her lip and glanced back at the door to the records room.

Questions that she had suppressed for years rose up in her mind and she violently shoved them back. Xarks-nii, she reminded herself. She couldn’t afford to wonder what secrets Liam was keeping from her. After all, she was keeping quite a few from him.

 

\----------------------------------------------

**TBC**


	14. Chapter 14

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I ran into a lot of trouble with this chapter, mostly because it follows the manga fairly closely and at this point the manga translations get a bit iffy. I ended up changing a few lines because what was in the speech bubbles in the translation just didn’t make sense. But I tried to stay as true to what would have fit the scene as I could (at the time of writing, official translations hadn’t come out yet) so hopefully I wasn’t too far off the mark.

 

**Part Two**

**Chapter Fourteen**

\-------------------------------------------------------------------

 

Liam found himself in the company of Lord Oscar more and more in the following weeks. He had the feeling Lord Oscar was keeping an eye on him, but as there was little he could do about it and Lord Oscar was decent enough company, he didn’t protest. Besides it was interesting to see how the man tensed every time Lord Vincent came near and how Lord Oscar found excuses to hurry him from any room that Vincent lingered long in, especially if the man showed signs of wanting to speak to them.

Liam had a feeling Lord Oscar was probably working on a request from Break, who had been impossible to reach for the past day or so despite the fact that he wasn’t supposed to be out in the field.

“You’re saying the meeting is postponed?” Lord Oscar asked, clearly annoyed.

“Yes, and you came all the way to Pandora. I’m sorry.” Liam tried to match Lord Oscar’s much longer pace but still ended up almost a step behind him. “It’s because Lady Rainsworth felt unwell suddenly.”

“Liam,” Lord Oscar’s face softened to a smile, “You don’t have to apologize.” 

But as they continued down the hallway Lord Oscar’s face grew worried again as he appeared to loose himself in thought, scratching at his head in a distracted manner. A few steps later Lord’s Oscar’s foot came down and something under it squeaked. Lord Oscar paused, “Squeak?” he said aloud with a perplexed expression.

Both he and Liam took a step back with surprise when they realized what he’d stepped on.

“Vin-Vincent Nightray?” Liam spluttered as they both stared down at the sleeping man who was lying, apparently without a care in the world, right in the middle of the hallway. He was even snoring softly. “What’s wrong?” Liam lent toward him fully expecting to find that Vincent had been somehow incapacitated, “Why are you sleeping here? Um…” without appearing to wake Vincent wrapped his arms around him and pulled him close.

Vincent chuckled darkly, apparently in his sleep, murmuring, “Brother…” right into Liam’s ear.

In response Liam uttered a strangled yelp, doing a passible impression of someone no spinal cord as he tried to squirm out of Vincent’s uncomfortably close hold. He didn’t manage it until several minutes later, when Lord Oscar finally intervened and peeled Vincent off.

As at this point there was quite the crowd of Pandora members watching them with interest Liam and Lord Oscar half dragged the sluggish Lord Vincent through the halls to his own room in the Pandora headquarters. There Lord Oscar sat the drowsy Vincent on a couch as Liam slumped against a table some feet away, still rather disturbed. After a bit of prodding Lord Oscar managed to rouse Vincent and retreated to another couch. 

Vincent yawned, patting his mouth, as he did so. “Ah, I’m sorry,” he said lightly, “You had to carry me back to my room.” he directed a particularly mild smile toward Liam.

Turning from the table Liam pushed his glasses farther up his nose, “But, Lord Vincent…” he paused, “That… your Chain… it… came out!” Liam heard that his voice was edging on slight panic and stopped himself. He had come a very long way from the boy who cried hysterically every time he _saw_ or saw a Chain but he would never be as comfortable with a released Chain as any other member of the Pandora staff and the massive napping mouse with a wind-up knob in it’s back that floated over Lord Vincent’s shoulders was testing his control. He wanted very much to back away from the thing and was glad that Vincent appeared to be too busy speaking with Lord Oscar to notice his reaction.

“You’re still not used to controlling a Chain?” Lord Oscar asked.

“Yes, it’s a real shame. If I’m not careful I’ll be affected by its power and fall asleep. Though Echo will always take care of me. However…” his lips tipped up in a smile. “Unfortunately she is currently on an errand.”

“Are you joining this Pandora meeting as well?”

“Yes, because they want me to send a report regarding the ‘Grim’.” Lord Oscar tensed as Vincent brought up the very subject he had been trying to prevent him from broaching while Liam was near for quite some time. Seeming not to notice Vincent went on, “This can’t be helped, because I’m the one who killed William. Actually if everything goes according to plan we might be able to pry out more information from _him_.”

Oscar paused, wondering the best way to phrase himself to end the conversation. “… that can’t be helped, this is to save that kid.”

“Yup. It really was a quick decision to make.”

“Then, how’s that young guy you saved?” he kept it vague since he did need to know how Oz was.

Vincent treated him with a grin. “Don’t worry, I won’t report the details.” Oscar thought he would end it there but he went on, to Oscar’s horror, “If Pandora comes to know about the Oz fellow that survived from the Abyss it’ll truly cause chaos.”

“Vincent,” Oscar said flatly, hoping to stop him before he said even _more_.

“Yes?” Vincent asked, with a smile so guileless it couldn’t be real.

They both looked over to where Liam stood at the same moment; Vincent actually looked like he had forgotten the man was there though Oscar would have bet good money that the exact opposite was true. Liam stood stiffly, back tense and shoulders raised as he appeared to be pretending he was another piece of furniture, he was easily smart enough to know that this was a conversation that he wasn’t supposed to be overhearing.

“Ah, Liam… you heard everything?” Vincent asked, as if it was a matter of no importance. It took just about every bit of Oscar’s self control not to scowl at him but laugh lightly along with him.

Liam jumped when he was addressed, squeaking, “I didn’t hear! I didn’t hear anything!”

There was no helping it now, he had heard the name, he would put two and two together and it would be better if Oscar did damage control sooner rather than later. “Don’t be nervous, Liam,” he went to Liam and grabbed him by the arm, towing him over to the couches. “Come over here.” 

He sat him between him and Vincent as Liam vehemently protested, “I wasn’t my fault! I just couldn’t help it!”

Vincent helped drag him down to sit on the couch, chuckling, “Who asked you to have such poor presence; this is _all_ your fault Liam.” 

“ _What_?” Liam yelped. Then he realized they were joking with him and instead of continuing his panic he asked Oscar, “But is what you said true? Is there really someone who came back alive from the Abyss?”

“Yup,” Oscar flashed a grin at him, “And he even signed a contract with Black Rabbit.”

“That… doesn’t that make him an illegal contractor?”

Right now Oscar could have wished that Liam was idiot and was incapable of remembering that any contract made by B-Rabbit had to be an illegal one. Unfortunately he wasn’t and there was no keeping it back now. So Oscar chuckled, patting him on the shoulder, “You didn’t think my nephew could do such a thing, huh?”

“How can you _laugh_?” Liam shook his head and took the glasses form his nose, staring down, not reaching for a cloth to clean them because the thoughts were lining up in his head, “It really is unbelievable… there is someone who can break the Abyss’ one hundred years of silence and is still alive?!”

“Mister Oscar,” Vincent had risen taking a folded chessboard from the bookcase on the far wall, “The night is still young.” he said. “What do you think? Let’s play a match and chat a little?”

Oscar followed Vincent’s glance at Liam, who was still lost in thought and missed it and knew from the tilt of Vincent’s head and the sly smile of his face that he didn’t dare leave until he found out how much Vincent might let slip to the rest of Pandora.

After all, the man had just proven that he couldn’t be trusted to keep things to himself and given Oscar a mess that he would have to sort out later. He made sure Liam was still distracted with polishing his glasses.

One disaster at a time.

“Why not?” he said, “I’ll play with you.”

 

\----------------------------------------------

**TBC**

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A short note on titles:
> 
> I have noticed the translations tend to favor ‘Mister’ in most cases but since that doesn’t seem quite right (for a non-noble speaking to a noble- Liam to Oscar) to me I replaced ‘Mister’ with ‘Lord’ for the most part in reference to Oscar. Since Vincent is adopted nobility the titles I used to refer to him were sometimes with the lord title and sometimes not depending on who’s talking. The same will probably apply to Gil.


	15. Chapter 15

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Interestingly enough, when I was originally writing this Pandora Hearts was still coming out. We were about at the Isla Yura Party arc/Head Hunter arc so this was about where I figured out things in this fic were going to end up a lot more AU than I thought. Canon made a turn I couldn’t follow and I had to throw out my notes for everything past Chapter 48.
> 
> Ah… good times.

**** **Part Two**

**Chapter Fifteen**

\-------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

Liam had never thought he would be listening to an odder conversation. Both Lord Oscar and Vincent might have appeared to be paying attention to the chess game in front of them but Liam had no doubt that with such heavy subjects on the table that they were paying far more attention to the conversation than the pieces.

The Baskervilles were not a subject mentioned lightly, nor was the ultimate objective of Pandora, the Will of the Abyss, though both were well known about among Pandora members.

It wasn’t a long game, Lord Oscar played badly when he was upset, which, though he showed no sign of it on his face _now_ , he had been since the mention of the young Lord Oz’s name. He lost in the end, and did what he often did when he lost --Liam knew this from many rounds of chess against him-- which was throw the board up in the air with comical frustration and a cry of, “Yaa! I lost!”

Fishing in a pocket Vincent withdrew a pocket watch and consulted it. “Ah, it’s that late. Sorry for making you play chess with me.”

Lord Oscar blew a thoughtful cloud of smoke and then took a drag from the cigarette he had lit before sitting down to the game. “Oz,” he began carefully, saying the name as if it wasn’t one he was used to using casually anymore, “Is the key to the reappearance of the Baskerville after their hundred years of silence. To Pandora…” he paused, glancing up from his cigarette to Lord Vincent, “Don’t you guys want to take care of the Black Rabbit and others?”

“Why didn’t you reveal Oz’s existence?” Vincent asked him in return, picking up a chess piece and thoughtfully tapped his chin with it. “But if that boy was under control of the organization you would be sad, right? That’s why--”

“ _Vincent_.” Lord Oscar interrupted him with the sharp word. The Lord held the bicolor glaze of Vincent with his own. “Just what are you thinking of about?”

“… I don’t understand what you’re asking.” Vincent replied. “But I…” he paused, then smiled rather like Break did when he decided he wanted to be cheery and was forcing it. “I am thinking on what Gil’s situation in this is.”

He said it with such cheerful frankness of brotherly devotion that it killed the tension that had been creeping into the room since the two sat down to play. Lord Oscar let his head fall into his palm with a sigh --apparently at the thought of whatever it was Raven was doing in all this-- and Liam couldn’t help but demand, “Are you joking?”

“I am.” Lord Vincent, with the same plastered on smile still in place. “Ever since the‘Grim problem’ Gil’s wanted to keep me a secret from them.”

Lord Oscar blinked at him with surprise, “What?”

Lord Vincent shrugged, letting the smile fade. “Although Pandora’s interests are important to me… Gil’s request is far more important.” he went to a door across the room and opened it, revealing that it led to his bedroom. As a lord and an agent he ranked high enough to have several rooms allotted to him. Resting a hand against the doorjamb Lord Vincent glanced back over his shoulder. “As long as he requests I won’t say a word.” Next to Liam Lord Oscar relaxed the tiniest bit and Lord Vincent gave his own trademark sly smile, “Well, I wish you two sweet dreams.” he closed the door behind him.

There was a beat of silence and then Lord Oscar burst into helpless laugher so strong he almost doubled over.

“Lord Oscar?” Liam asked, cautiously regarding him.

But the man wasn’t looking at him when he muttered, “Really Gil, your little brother surely is a tough opponent.”

“Are you feeling quite alright, Lord Oscar?”

Lord Oscar appeared to come back to himself from whatever thoughts had followed his words and looked up at him. “Near enough to it. Come with me.” he stood and took him by the shoulder. “We need to have a bit of a chat. Somewhere private would be best. Your rooms perhaps?”

 

\----------------------------------------------

 

_“Have you noticed?”_

 

_“Yes, I have noticed.”_

 

_“He’s been seen more and more with that Oscar Vessalius.”_

 

_“Do you think?”_

 

_“Yes I think.”_

 

_“Damnit, Liam must know what Break is up to now.”_

 

_“We had hoped to keep him away from the Hatter.”_

 

_“Yes. True.”_

 

_“Maybe you should… see if Liam will tell you what he knows.”_

 

_“I doubt he will.”_

 

_“Are you implying his loyalty to me is less than his loyalty to-- to--_ Xerxes Break? _”_

 

_“Yes. I am.”_

 

_“Be quiet, Cheryl.”_

 

_“Ladies, gentleman, let’s not argue now. We have other matters to discuss.”_

 

_“Yes.”_

 

_“Yes.”_

 

_“Other matters.”_

 

_“Other than Hatter and Hare?”_

 

_“_ Yes! _”_

 

_“No need to shout.”_

 

\----------------------------------------------

 

“This is B-Rabbit.” Lord Oscar frowned at the drawing pinned to the wall. “I never realized you meet her.”

“The fourth attack on Pandora she made, I was there. If your nephew has made a contract with her he must be powerful. Though I don’t see how you hid such a massive rabbit from Pandora all this time.” Liam leaned against the wall of his room, trying to stop himself form pacing to burn off his nerves. No doubt Lord Oscar had asked to have this talk to make sure he didn’t go repeating what he had just heard to his master. He rather hoped a threat wasn’t going to be involved.

“Rather easily actually,” Lord Oscar took Liam’s only chair, which sat near his desk. “She takes the form of a young girl now. Chains that can change shape are so rare we always forget they exist; B-Rabbit is apparently one of those.”

“I don’t think I could even imagine B-Rabbit as anything but that.” he nodded at the drawing on the wall. “How long has Break been working on this?” he demanded. “Since Oz Vessalius was pulled into the Abyss? Or even before that?”

Lord Oscar shrugged. “Some time.”

Something occurred to Liam. “Why have you kept all this from me? More importantly, why have you kept all this from _Pandora_?”

“He told me that he didn’t want to deal with the bureaucracy that was sure to follow if Pandora knew about my nephew. There was something that he wanted to finish first.”

“What?”

“I don’t know.”

“So where is Break now?” _So I can strangle him_ Liam added in the privacy of his mind.

“I don’t know.” Lord Oscar repeated. “Break has been gone for three days. And it’s not just him, Oz and Alice are gone too, along with Gil.”

“Alice?”

“It’s B-Rabbit’s other name.”

“What about Lady Sharon? She must know what’s going on, have you asked her?”

“No. I was called to Pandora for this meeting before I could go to the Rainsworth estate.” Lord Oscar said. “Now, putting that aside for the moment, about what you’ve just heard Vincent and I discussing, it goes without saying that we don’t want Pandora knowing about my nephew.”

“Naturally.” Liam said. “And so you want an assurance from me that I won’t go to the higher ups with everything I’ve just heard?”

“Basically.” Lord Oscar grinned. “The odds are good that everyone might find out about Oz soon enough so all you have to do is keep quiet for a bit.”

“That’s easier said than done, Lord Oscar. And right now I’m more concerned about where Break is hiding.” S _ince if you don’t know and you’re this worried about it something bad must be going on,_ Liam thought but carefully did not say.

“Of course you are. I’m sure you have many things you wish to… discuss with Break.” The glanced Lord Oscar shot at him made no doubt Oscar fully expected Liam’s wrath to fall fully and painfully --at least for everyone who had the misfortune to be in earshot-- on Break. “Now, since the meeting was canceled, I’ll be taking that trip to the Rainsworth household I was planning on. Would you like to come with me? I’m sure Miss Sharon would be very interested to know what you think of the situation, now that you know it, of course.”

As this fit neatly with his plan to interrogate Lady Sharon about what exactly she and Break were up to Liam had no reason to refuse the offer. All the same he still felt very much like he was being deflected from inquiring further into something, namely, where Break was at that very moment.

Because a missing Xerxes Break was an absolutely terrifying idea. Who knew where he would turn up.

 

\----------------------------------------------

**TBC**


	16. Chapter 16

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Going back over this having read the whole series I realize I made a mistake with the Rainsworth ladies by making Shelly still alive but since we’re in AU land I left it in.

**Part Two**

**Chapter Sixteen**

\---------------------------------------------------------------------

 

To Liam, the next two days were a quiet crisis.

When he and Lord Oscar had gone to speak to Lady Sharon about the disappearance of both Break and Lord Oscar’s nephew (and the chain B-Rabbit --Alice?-- apparently) they had found that the Lady was not in her rooms. In fact, no one in the Rainsworth household knew where she was anymore.

Liam had long known many of the Rainsworth servants from his many visits there growing up and he carefully questioned every single member of the household staff that he could trust not to talk about the Lady’s disappearance. Not that he had to worry much about that as Miss Sharon was much beloved by her servants. But none of them had seen the Lady since Lord Oz and Lord Gil had visited her rooms a day ago.

Two hours later Lord Oscar found Liam searching the household from top to bottom, paying special attention to the nooks and crannies that Miss Sharon and he used to hide in when they played hide and seek together. It was a completely irrational thing to do in some respects, but he somehow couldn’t shake the idea that if he just looked in this one last spot he would find the little girl he remembered --the laughing little girl he had grown up with, not the secretive, distant lady he knew now.

“Liam,” Oscar put a hand on his shoulder. “Stop. She’s not here.” 

“She must be here.” Liam snapped, tired and dust covered and bruised from searching. “No one saw her leave and she never asked for a coach to be brought around. She _has_ to be here. She _has_ to be.”

“Liam,” Oscar shook him a bit, not liking that there was something like panic creeping into the other man’s tone, “You aren’t thinking. She has Eques, she could use its power to leave if she had to.”

Liam blinked at him for a moment then sighed, looking down at his knuckles, several of which he had bloodied in his desperate search. “I… wasn’t thinking.” he admitted. “Where would she go? Now that I think of it, why would she use Eques to leave? It would be a waste of energy.”

“Now that’s a better question. Let’s check where she was last seen. There might be some sort of clue there.”

 

\----------------------------------------------

 

There was a slightly darkened patch on the carpet that spoke of the use of Eques. It was as if someone had scattered a thin layer of ash over the floor, except for one spot that was a both clean and perfectly circular, where the portal would have formed.

“That doesn’t make sense.” Liam said as he frowned at the mark.

“What do you mean?”

“There’s a limit to how many people Lady Sharon would be able to transport at a time. From what the servants said both Lord Oz and Gilbert were here too. If she has to transport herself too she can only take one other person with her. She wouldn’t be able to take both of them with her.”

“But both Gil and Oz haven’t been seen since they entered this room either.”

“That’s exactly why I said this doesn’t make sense.”

“Wait, Liam, you said that in Lady Sharon had to transport _herself_ too her limit was one, correct?”

“Yes,” Liam frowned up at Oscar, “Do you think she didn’t use Eques to leave?”

“I do. We’ve been working under the assumption that she went wherever she sent Oz and Gil. What if she didn’t? What if she sent them off to wherever Break is and waited here to hold the gateway open?”

“That’s a bit of leap.”

“No, because I think she was attacked while she was waiting. Look,” Oscar crouched and pointed to a few flecks of a reddish brown substance on the carpet. “That’s blood. Well, it might be red wine but I doubt it as this is Lady Sharon’s room and she’s not known for being much of a drinker. Since there’s not a lot of it I can only assume that someone attacked Lady Sharon but didn’t seriously injure her.”

“You think she’s been kidnapped?” Liam pushed his glasses further up his nose. “That makes the most sense, considering the rest of the situation. Do you think that something similar has happened to Break?”

Lord Oscar shook his head. “Break indicated to me not too long ago that he expected to be… unavailable in the near future. I think if Lady Sharon had planned on disappearing too wherever he went to she would have mentioned it to me.”

“In that case Lady Shelly needs to know her daughter is missing.”

“And Lady Cheryl too,” Lord Oscar pointed out. “Both are probably at Pandora. Actually, the higher ups at Pandora’ll probably also want to know about this. Lady Sharon is an agent after all.”

“Let’s talk with the Rainsworth ladies first.” Liam said. “She’s their daughter, it should be theirchoice what to do.”

“Very good point,” Lord Oscar glanced sideways at Liam, “You know, I rather wish you had been on board with this project from the beginning. You would have been useful.”

“I’m sure Break had his reasons.” Liam made a face. “However irritating they may be. For the time being we should find out where Lady Shelly and Lady Cheryl are.”

“This will be faster if we split up and searched for them individually.”

“You don’t want to have to talk to Lady Cheryl, do you?” 

Lord Oscar sighed. “She’s terrifying.”

“She’s not as bad as--” Liam shook his head, cutting himself off. “Never mind. I’ll look for her in that case, as long as you try to find Lady Shelly.”

“It looks like we’re going back to Pandora then.”

“I suppose so.”

 

\----------------------------------------------

 

Lady Cheryl watched him with clever eyes, her wrinkled hands clasped, her chin resting on them.

“Kidnapped?” she repeated carefully. “Thank you for coming to me with this first, Liam. My, my, we’ll need to keep this quiet, won’t we?” she leaned back in her wheelchair, her expression thoughtful. “With the exception of Ruf that is, Sharon is one of Pandora’s contractors, he will need to know what has happened to her. Unfortunately Ruf isn’t in Pandora at the moment; he left for the Barma mansion only a few hours ago.”

After a small, pointed, silence Liam realized what was expected of him. “I would be no matter for me to bring the news to Duke Barma.” Inwardly he winced. The last thing he wanted to do under the current circumstances was face his master, especially now that he knew what Break was plotting.

Apparently he had shown some of this last thought on his face on his face because Lady Cheryl frowned at him. “Will you be alright?

“Lady?”

“I know that…” she paused, as if wondering how best to phrase herself. “Your master is not the kindest to his people. I was simply wondering if…” the Lady watched Liam’s expression go solemn and unreadable and cut herself off, restarting with, “Well, you are going to speak with him, I would be careful.”

Not sure where the warning had sprung from, Liam nodded his thanks and waited to be dismissed. With a wave Lady Cheryl granted the dismissal and Liam left in a thoughtful mood.

What did Lady Cheryl know that he did not? Something that had been discussed in a meeting of Pandora’s higher ups? Something to do with his master? 

A terrible suspicion crept into his mind. Did Duke Barma know he now knew what Break was up to?

That was why Break had kept him from knowing, he realized, it would take only a demand from Barma --a demand made more serious by an upraised fan, held by a man who had no qualms about bringing it down with great force-- and he would tell his master everything he knew.

Or would he?

Liam paused in mid step, foot a few inches from floor. Did he necessarily _have_ to reveal Break’s plot to Barma? In the strictest technicality that would be betrayal but… if Duke Barma knew what Break was doing there would be a mess and possibly a tribunal for both Break and Lady Sharon. Whether he withheld or gave the information he would be betraying someone on either side.

So the real question would be: which side was he going to choose?

 

\----------------------------------------------

**TBC**


	17. Chapter 17

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> We’re getting close to part three, not much longer now.

**** **Part Two**

**Chapter Seventeen**

\---------------------------------------------------------------

 

He told his master about Lady Sharon’s disappearance but Rufus Barma dismissed the news almost as soon as he heard it. He had something else on his mind.

Duke Barma glared at him so hard that Liam instinctively flinched, expecting a blow. Thirty-one years old and Duke Barma could make him flinch with just a look.

“What is Xerxes Break doing?” his master asked him in that careful tone Liam heard prefacing anger far too many times. “You must know by now, I have given you more than enough freedom to find out.”

He tried, unsuccessfully, to press himself further back but the wall got in the way. The hours Liam had spent in a rattling carriage had been used to figure out what exactly he was going to say when he was asked this exact question and after much careful thought he knew the entirety of his reply even before he uttered it. “I don’t know what Xerxes Break is doing.” he said.

There was a flash of rage in Duke Barma’s eyes and his hand went into his pocket though when he spoke his voice was still almost even. “I have known you since you were a child Liam, I know how your mind works. You would not have been so close to a secret without finding out _something_ , if not everything, about it. Now,” there was no mistaking the message in the way his master took his metal fan from his pocket and began to tap it against his leg, _“Tell me what you know.”_

It took all of the control he had to make himself say, “I don’t know anything.” instead of _“I don’t know it all but I can speculate all the parts I don’t exactly know for sure.”_

Duke Barma raised an eyebrow, “Anything?” he asked.

“Nothing at all.”

“I doubt that.” he said, the fan raising.

 

\----------------------------------------------

 

Thirty minutes later Liam leaned against the doorframe of the kitchen, watching two figures move back and forth in front of the huge ovens, pulling out the fresh bread to cool. They were alone, since the mansion operated on a skeleton staff while only Duke Barma was in residence, only taking in more staff for guests. The Duke went to stay at Pandora so often that it was only necessary to keep enough servants to make smalls meals and clean the mansion.

Even among those, the maids, the footmen, the kitchen hands, they did not often stay employed in the Barma household, as illusions that were almost impossible to spot as fake unnerved most so much they resigned as soon as they could. Very few servants stayed more than a few months.

The exception to this rule was the housekeeper, Mistress Agathea, and her cousin, Miss Catherine, who was the cook. They had been working in the mansion since Liam could remember and would now be impossible to do without because between them they ran all the little details of the household that made the place work.

“Mister Liam!” Agathea had caught sight of him and paused, holding a tray of gently steaming loafs.She took in the way he was standing and how he had his hands tucked into his pockets and immediately put the tray down on the nearest clear table. “Oh, what’s made him angry this time?” she asked.

He gave his best approximation of a smile. “Nothing much, you know how it is.”

“Well, sit down,” she nodded briskly to a table tucked into a corner. “I’ll get the jar.”

As she went over to take a jar from a high self he took one of the two chairs at the table, taking his hands carefully from his coat pockets as he sat.

“How long has it been, Mister Liam?” Agathea asked as she took the other chair, “A few months I think since the last time.”

“I believe so.” Liam said. He had been ‘Liam’ to them for so long, then ’ _Mister_ Liam’ had turned up over the more recent years withoutparticularly being asked or invited. He hadn’t asked why. “But it isn’t that bad,” he held up his hands, dotted with red patches and spreading bruises, with a two fingers bending inward without his asking them to in pain, “No broken bones.” and that had mostly been because these days he knew how to fend of blows to his head without letting those same blows break anything. He’d had enough practice.

“Good,” reaching into a pocket of her apron Agathea withdrew a roll of bandages and set them on the table next to the jar. “Now give me one of those hands. If I don’t get this ointment on them soon you know they’ll get so stiff you won’t be able to write for days.”

He gave a hand over and she went through the ritual they had gone through many times in the past years. Taking some of the ointment from the jar she spread it across the bruises with her work worn hands and began to carefully rub it in.

There was a rustle beside him and Catherine set a plate with slice of hot buttered bread on it on the table in front on him. She patted him on the shoulder and went back to the ovens. Catherine had always been one of very few words.

This was Liam’s childhood in the Barma household, the smell of fresh bread mingled with the sharp scent of the ointment, white bandages, and the briskly kind Agathea and the quiet kindness of Catherine.

“It’s probably good that you’ve been spending so much time at Pandora,” Agathea said. “What with the way the master has been acting lately.”

“I thought he had only just returned here.” Liam said.

“Well, yes, but,” she began winding bandages around the hand she held, “he’d been here for three weeks before he went back to Pandora for that meeting.”

“Acting odd… how?” he asked.

“He’s been brooding a great deal lately. And then there’s…” Agathea’s face drew into a worried expression. “What was the name of that friend of yours, Mister Liam, the one with the white hair?”

“Xerxes Break. What about him?”

“The master has been making those illusions of his,” she paused to shudder, “Ugh, more often then usual. He makes that friend of yours.” she tied off the last bandage on his hand and reached for the other one, which it took him a moment to give he was so surprised.

“He makes illusions of _Break?”_ Liam frowned. “That’s…” what to say? Very strange? Not good? But then again, when did he care so much? Break called himself a friend, that was true; however Break had spent the better part of the last ten years not outright lying to him but certainly lying by extreme omission.

When it came down to it, what did he owe to Xerxes Break? What had being a friend to the man gotten him? All he had to do to find an answer to that was look down at the aching hand Agathea was rubbing ointment into.

“You’ll give him a warning about it, of course.” Agathea said with a tone of certainty. “The best thing to do when the master is in one of his moods is to stay away until he gets distracted by something else.”

“Tell him about the other part.” said Catherine quietly, the first words she had said since the conversation began. 

Agathea glanced over at her cousin, a little nervous movement.

“Agathea?” he asked her --she had demanded he drop the ‘Mistress’ some years ago, around when ‘Mister’ had shown up-- and also looked over to where Catherine was making herself very busy transferring loafs from a tray. “Catherine?”

“Eat that bread before it gets cold.” said Catherine shortly.

“What’s the other part?” he asked.

“I don’t like to mention.” Agathea murmured, taking bandages from the table and beginning to wrap his hand.

Despite the fact he wasn’t sure he even wanted to know he asked, “What else is the Duke doing, Agathea?”

She sighed, giving in so easily she must have wanted to say what it was from the beginning. “I’ve seen him make an illusion of your friend, then let it go, and watch him fall to pieces. Over and over. It’s horrible; you know how disturbing those illusions are when they dispel. Watching people fall to pieces,” she shook her head. “I don’t like it. But never mind that, you speak to that friend of yours and I’m sure it will be fine.” Tying the last knot she put his hand down, “You leave those bandages on for at least a few hours so the ointment can set properly then you can take them off. Now, roll up your sleeves, Mister Liam.”

“There’s no reason--”

Agathea raised one graying eyebrow at him and it was his turn to give in. He rolled up his sleeves. The side of his arm, where it wouldn’t break the bone when the fan hit his arm was dotted with impact bruises.

“It really isn’t that bad.” he said.

“Still, let me at least rub some ointment in, otherwise those are going to ache something awful later.”

Knowing that arguing with Agathea when she had that stern look in her eye was useless he held out an arm.

“When are you going back to Pandora?”

“Tonight,” As soon as possible. This was not a good place for him to be.

“Good.” Agathea said firmly. “At least there you’ll be safe.”

“Safer then here at least,” Catherine muttered to the bread.

To that Agathea said nothing, just finishing tending to the remaining bruises. Then Liam ate his slice of bread, wished both women well, and fled back to the dubious refuge of Pandora.

It was not long after that that an official Pandora meeting was interrupted by the loud arrival of B-Rabbit, who had a blonde-haired young man in tow, right in the middle of it.

 

\----------------------------------------------

**TBC**


	18. Chapter 18

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This was kind of a point in cannon I was dreading, the first person narration by Liam during the Jack Vessalius scene. The make things more interesting this was originally written before official translations were available so the translation is a little stilted sounding. I had to do some creative editing both then and now to make things flow better, which is why some lines are different from the manga.
> 
> Coming soon: Break and Liam have a bit of a ‘talk’ about those pesky secrets Break has been keeping.

**Part Two**

**Chapter Eighteen**

\----------------------------------------------------------------

 

The last thing Liam had expected as he stood outside the Pandora meeting room was to see B-Rabbit burst out of the double doors and charge down the hall. He just had time to glimpse the young man the Chain was carrying before they whisked out of sight around a corner.

And then things fell like dominoes one into the other, sending him crashing from one event to the other. Suddenly Lord Oscar was ordering him to hide his nephew and while he was trying to figure out how on _earth_ to do that Break had grabbed him into a side room where Raven was passed out on a couch.

That conversation went far too fast for Liam’s liking, Break had blood on his shirt which he refused to explain and he just walked away when he found out Lady Sharon was missing. Liam followed to Break’s room but he closed the door in Liam’s face before he could even get another question in.

As he pounded on Break’s door Liam was more frustrated than he had even been in his life. He wanted to grab Break by the collar and shake him and shout, “I know! I know almost everything now and _why_ didn’t you tell me before?!”

But Break never opened his door and when Liam finally tried the doorknob --it wasn’t locked as he had assumed-- the room was empty, only Break’s bloody clothes on the floor and the open wardrobe door gave any sign he had been there at all. Break had already disappeared in that mysterious way he had.

Liam knelt to pick up one of the decapitated black roses that had been strewn around Break’s room. The curtains had also been slashed and the furniture overturned as if someone had been deliberately trying to cause as much damage as possible in a short time. “What the hell is going on _now_ , Break?” he demanded of the vacant room.

 

\----------------------------------------------

 

Liam rummaged through the papers on his desk, tossing the ones he didn’t need to the floor to be picked up later. Of course Lord Oscar had said himself that the young man that B-Rabbit had dragged with her was the missing Lord Oz but he hadn’t thought until this very moment to confirm it. That could have been anyone with B-Rabbit, with the way Break had been lying to him lately Liam was ready to believe anything he was told by _that_ crowd was a convient lie.

He finally found the right file and half-spilled it over the floor in his hurry. Shuffling through the papers he produced what he had been looking for with a sigh of relief. 

It was a photograph, part of a file that he technically wasn’t supposed to have taken a look at but Liam spent so much time in records that no one noticed if he looked into the more classified files.

The photo was a boy with with very blond hair and startlingly green eyes, who was smiling at the camera as if he had not a care in the world while another boy, that was Raven, wasn’t it?, stood nervously in the background.

At the bottom of the photograph was written _‘Oz Vessalius, age 10’_.

“It’s really him,” Liam murmured. “Then was he really in the Abyss?” 

He shook his head. Time to wonder about that later, right now he needed to do what Lord Oscar had asked of him and get B-Rabbit and Oz Vessalius to safety. Which meant he had to _find_ them first.

 

\----------------------------------------------

 

Finding where the Vessalius heir turned out not be as difficult as Liam had thought as the young man had been trapped in the main hall by several agents, two of which had already revealed their Chains and were ready for a fight.

But there was something different about the young man who looked down at them from his place on the steps. His eyes were not the same as the laughing boy in the picture Liam had just looked at only moments before; no boy of only fifteen could have such sorrowful eyes.

And yet there was no doubt that this was Oz Vessalius in the flesh, standing there in bloody and torn clothes, but… those eyes, the sudden power in them had rendered almosteveryone in the hall dumb.

“Who?” Liam finally found the willpower to ask the agent to his right.

“He says he’s Jack Vessalius speaking through the boy,” the agent whispered back, without taking his eyes from the young man. “Amazing!”

“I apologize for startling everyone,” the young man, no the spirit that was speaking _through_ him, said, “However, I request for just a few seconds everyone please listen to me.”

“Such a powerful aura,” Murmured the Pandora agent standing to his left.

Liam frowned, no, what the spirit was giving off wasn’t quite that suffocating feeling of pure power. Instead it was… its was… what _was_ that?

“I have something to tell everyone.” The spirit said. “Because this land must never repeat the Tragedy of Sablier again!” A ripple of surprise went through the hall, faces showed surprise mixed with a tinge of fear. The Tragedy had been almost one hundred years ago but the fear, or at least, the memory of the fear, still remained. “I believe that all of you know that in the past I battled with the head of the Baskervilles, Glen Baskerville. So, I, here and now,” the spirit thrust one arm out to the side in an emphatic gesture, “Announce to everyone that Glen Baskerville is not dead! He will bring chaos back to this land!”

This time it wasn’t just surprise that went through the room but denial too, “N-nonsense!” shouted a portly agent, “The head of Baskerville still alive?” The agent snorted withdisgust. “Your nonsense shows no limits!”

The spirit fixed the agent with a look so pointed that the agent seemed to shrink in on himself, retreating off the stairs and past Liam. What was that feeling? Not power, not force, but he could feel it too, flowing through his bones, pulling at his heart, making his fingers twitch toward his glasses before he snapped his hand down.

He did not need to be blinded right now.

The spirit of Jack Vessalius looked down on them from his place at the top of the stairs with an expression too gentle for the pulling they could all feel, “Even if you all don’t believe it… I won’t blame you. But this is the truth. The Baskerville’s aim is to acquire the Will of the Abyss and for this purpose they made a sacrifice to the Abyss and had a massive killing in Sablier.”

Murmurs went around the room, murmurs of shock and surprise, all that death and pain, all those people lost in Sablier, all of that had been done by the _Baskervilles_?

“Because there were a huge number of sacrifices the four duke houses came out to stop everything.” the spirit stepped down the stairs, pausing a few steps from the landing where the young girl --was _that_ B-Rabbit?-- stood,“After Glen lost, the Baskerville household vanished from the world.”

“But,” Liam found himself speaking without even realizing he was going to, it was that pull, tugging the words from his mind and out of his mouth, “Baskervilles have already broken their silence. The reports of young Lord Oz’s coming of age ceremony…” 

The spirit smiled at him, a smile that had something of the boy whose body he was wearing in it.

“Coming of age _ceremony_?” the portly agent had regathered his courage and now said the phrase incredulously, with the implied skepticism that anything of import could happen at an adulthood ceremony.

Liam felt the words still being pulled and didn’t bother to try and stop them, he need to play this, needed to make whatever this was work or Pandora was going to turn against Oz Vessalius. He took a few steps up the stairs to gesture at the man on the landing above, “That’s right,” he said, “This is Oz Vessalius! Ten years ago he was pushed into the Abyss by the Baskerville household but by some miracle he’s used his own power to return.”

The faces below were changing as a ripple of surprise went through them, the tinge of disbelief fading.

“It can’t be fake if Liam says so…” An agent murmured and others were nodding agreement. Liam gave an internal sigh of relief and was unreliably thankful for his usual reputation for honestly. That made this all easier.

The portly agent’s face was full of shock, “Wait a second, Oz Vessalius… he hasn’t just been missing all these years? I thought for sure he had been killed by illegal contractors that attacked his coming of age ceremony.”

The hum of conversation from the agents was building, agents murmuring intently to each other and pretending not to watch as the spirit made his way down the stairs.

Raven had been standing among the audience, his dark coat distinctive against all the Pandora uniforms and he looked rather like he was going to be ill, pale and sweating. Suddenly he put a hand to his mouth, shoulders hunched as if he was trying to hide from something.

That was when the spirit of Jack Vessalius stepped off the last of the stairs and walked to him. Reaching up he put a hand on his shoulder and seemed to draw him back to the present with a gentle, “ _Gilbert_.”

It wasn’t often that Liam heard Raven’s real name, he’d started asking to be called after the name of his Chain… oh, that must have been right around when Lord Oz had returned. Interesting.

All the same, it was strange to look at the agent of Pandora, disgraced member of the Nightray family and remember that he had once been simply Gilbert, Oz Vessalius’s servant.

“Are you alright?” The spirit asked Raven in a voice so low Liam wouldn’t have heard it had he not been nearby. “Did you remember those unhappy memories?” He mussed the much taller Raven’s hair, much to Raven’s surprised distress.

Raven protested the treatment and the spirit laughed a fond laugh, as if remembering something once familiar to him that had long gone unheard. Then the spirit turned, “Alice,” he called, “Come here too.”

Through the crowd of agents the young girl who had been standing on the stairs came, her steps dragging, her face downturned. 

“Eh, what’s wrong?” the spirit asked, tilting her head up, “Why the sad face?”

For the first time since Jack Vessalius revealed himself the young girl --Liam could hardly reconcile the ferocious B-Rabbit with this vulnerable young lady-- spoke. “You were in one of my memories--”

But the young man swayed before he could reply, putting a hand to his head. “It seems it’s almost time…” he said, more to himself than anyone else. When he lowered his hand he spoke not to the Chain next to him but to the crowd around them and that amazing aura flowed from him again, even more forcefully. “Underlings of the four Duke houses, I shall tell you for the last time, Glen Baskerville is not dead! The Baskervilles are on search for the four doors that Pandora possesses, they will find their master as well and with what they are planning the Tragedy of Sablier happen again.” 

Although his voice was still firm Liam noticed that that Oz Vessalius’ body was beginning to tremble.

“My spirit will be with this youth,” the ghost of Jack Vessalius put a hand to the chest of the body he was possessing, “He will lead you to beat the Baskervilles.” 

Liam had to clamp his hand around his right arm to keep it from rising to his glasses, later he would find bruises around his arm from where he gripped it. The pull from the spirit was so strong, he could feel it yanking him along with the other agents into line. All around him backs straightened, hands clenched in readiness, muscles tensing.

“You have to protect Oz Vessalius,” The spirit said, eyes firm. “Knights of the four honorable houses, I charge you to keep him safe.”

And Liam realized at last, the feeling that was being pulled from all of them, steady like a stream. Awe!

And it was that awe that they could no more resist than they could stop breathing that dragged every member of Pandora in the room to one knee, tearing the answer from their throats in one unanimous, _“Yes!”_

The spirit smile one last, sad, forlorn smile, “Thank you… everyone…” and then he fainted.

The spirit of Jack Vessalius was gone, leaving a roomful of men on their knees and a girl’s mournful cry of, “Jack!”

 

\----------------------------------------------

**TBC**


	19. Chapter 19

**Part Two**

**Chapter Nineteen**

\----------------------------------------------------------

 

“Break!” Oscar grabbed Break’s sleeve, pulling him to a halt. “There’s something you need to know.”

“Is it important?” Break asked, impatience tinging his voice. “I need to attend to something.”

Oscar pulled him over toward the wall and lowered his voice. “It is important. You have to know before you speak to Liam… he knows. Almost everything.”

Anger flickered briefly across Break’s face before he controlled it and said, “I thought it a little odd when I heard that that he spoke for Oz. I suppose this would explain why. How did he find out?”

“Vincent.” said Oscar simply.

“Ah, the gutter rat,” Break said sweetly. “Why am I not altogether surprised? …how did he take it?”

“Liam? Angry. Betrayed. Still reasonable through that, but you need to talk to him Break, before… _something_ happens to him because of what he knows.”

Break produced a candy and crunched it thoughtfully. “Now that Pandora knows about Oz we can stop having to worry about what Barma might inflict on anyone who might know informatio. In theory Liam should be safe.”

“He’s going to kill you, you know. Now that he’s figured out how much you’ve kept from him.”

“I suppose I’ll see.” Break murmured, tossing the wrapper away.

 

\----------------------------------------------

 

_“I cannot believe that Xerxes Break would attempt such a thing.”_

 

_“I can.”_

 

_“Might I remind you , Lady, Cheryl, that he is under the service of your household? And that your granddaughter is also involved in this… incident.”_

 

_“I need no reminders. But might I remind you that the return of the spirit of Jack Vessalius makes Oz little less than a hero in the eyes of the rest of Pandora.”_

 

_“That comment was directed toward me, I have no doubt.”_

 

_“Yes it was, Ruf. You can’t touch Oz Vessalius without the entire population of Pandora protesting. Me included. You’ll have to leave him alone for the time being, that was very well played on Xerxes’s part.”_

 

_“Where is this ‘Oz’ right now?”_

 

_“Asleep. Has has been for the past two days.”_

 

_“What do you suppose he will be when he awakens?”_

 

_“We will see.”_

 

_“Yes.”_

 

_“I suppose we shall, won’t we?”_

 

_“But in the meantime, what are we supposed to do with a_ hero _?”_

 

_“Befriend him?”_

 

_“Recruit him, you mean.”_

 

_“If the Baskervilles are truly returned then we might truly need Jack Vessalius again.”_

 

_“By the way, Barma, I heard your servant spoke for Oz Vessalius. Did you give him instructions to do so?”_

 

_“No. I did not.”_

 

_“Oh. I_ see _.”_

 

_“Then he has become entangled in this matter as well.”_

 

_“Well, so have we all now, haven’t we?”_

 

\----------------------------------------------

 

It had been one day since Oz Vessalius’ presence had become known to Pandora at large and Liam had yet to enact the murder of Break that he had been planning. Mostly because the man was proving as illusive as a cat when it knew its master was angry.

Working out the logistics of the Oz case, paperwork, security detail, records, and such, had somehow (Break’s work probably) fallen to him to straighten out. This was no easy task as Pandora had very little procedure to deal with a reincarnated hero and the young man in question had yet to wake up and thus could not be asked if he planned on working with Pandora further.

With a sigh Liam pushed open the door of the records room, which was quickly becoming his sanctuary against the insanity of the outside world since no one but him ever went there, strangely enough.

It took Liam a moment to notice the thing out of place, but then again, he was tired. There was a crumpled up paper on the floor by the table. That was odd, no one but him, and perhaps occasionally the records keeper, ever came in there. He reached down and picked up the paper, smoothing it out on the table.

To his surprise he recognized the handwriting on it. It was his own. In fact, after he read a few lines he realized that this was a page from his file on Oz Vessalius, the one he had secretly amassed once he had an inkling of what Break and Lady Sharon were up to. How had someone gotten their hands on that?

Then he saw the edge of the paper sticking out from between two of the stacks and his eyes narrowed. One page could be a coincidence but two… he walked over to pick it up and found that it was another page from the file. And a little farther down the row was another paper, very white in the gloom of the files.

As he went to pick up this third paper a suspicion crossed his mind and got stronger as he followed, and collected, the trail of carefully placed papers into the depths of the records room.

It was confirmed when he rounded a corner and saw who was leaning against one of the stacks, a sheaf of papers in his hand and a smile on his face.

“Hello, Liam.” Break said. “Fancy seeing you here.”

 

\----------------------------------------------

**TBC**


	20. Chapter 20

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And at last Liam gets to have that talk with Break that he’s been wanting for so long. Although, as it’s Break, it doesn’t exactly go as planned.

**Part Two**

**Chapter Twenty**

\-----------------------------------------------------------------

 

Liam snatched the papers from Break. “I thought you would show up eventually if I didn’t look for you. You don’t take being ignored very well.”

“Now, now, I can’t be nearly that predictable.” Break said.

“Yes. You are.” Liam turned his back on him, walking back through the stacks, knowing that Break would follow. The look on his face had been too urgent for him to wander off like he usually did.

When they left the stacks Liam set the stack of papers on the table and tried to put them back in their proper order, not a hard task as it would seem as he remembered the order fairly well. These papers were the sum total of his speculation across the years, his notes, his theories, and what research he had managed to piece together.

“You know you’ve got almost all of it there,” Break peered over his shoulder at the papers. “After that gutter rat let slip the few things you couldn’t have possibly guessed it appears you put most of the story together by yourself. How clever of you.”

Liam turned slowly. “‘How clever of me’?” he repeated, his voice dangerous, “I realize that we aren’t as close as we once were, Break, but I would appreciate it if you wouldn’t patronize me.”

“Ah. Prickly then.” Break said.

“I have every right to be prickly, considering what you’ve been deliberately keeping me from all these years.”

“There was a reason for that, you know.” 

“Really? You’ve been lying to me for all this time; there had better be a very good reason.”

“Well, I thought perhaps you would have worked that out too.” Break took a tin of candies from his pocket, selecting one and popping it into his mouth.

With an annoyed sound Liam turned back to his papers, gathering them back up. “What exactly could that reason be? Because I know why you took Gilbert Nightray under your wing, I know what you and Lady Sharon have been working on, I know why you’ve been so interested in Oz Vessalius, I know you want to know about the Tragedy of Sablier, but what I _haven’t_ been able to figure out is why you bothered to keep all this from me. It’s one of the few things in this,” he waved the stack of papers, “That _doesn’t_ make sense. So explain it to me, why was I kept out?”

“Because,” Break cracked the candy between his teeth. “You are the servant of Rufus Barma.”

Liam scowled and slapped the papers onto the table. “You thought I wouldn’t be able to keep what I knew from my master.”

“Would you?” Break asked. “If he… _asked_ you? Would you have been able to keep silent?”

“I already have, Xerc.”

Break winced, as if he had been hit. “… what do you mean?”

Slowly Liam walked around the table, to the far side, using the time to pull his gloves off. When he reached the far side he put his hands, palms down, on the tabletop. It wasn’t often that he tried to draw attention to his hands, to the small scars on his fingers from years of… most of the time he wore gloves. The bruises from the last time he had visited the Barma were still on his skin, yellow and green now, instead of the black and blue they had once been but prominent all the same. The small cuts the fan sometimes left had yet to heal completely, especially the swollen one across his knuckles. All combined it made for a nasty sight.

“I’ve already bleed for your secret, Xerxes Break. Don’t you dare accuse me of being unable to keep my mouth closed around my superiors because I already have been for some time now.” Liam glared at Break. “And the only reward I’ve gotten for that is blood and pain. So make it worth my while, _tell_ me something for once.”

“You were not supposed to be hurt,” Break was staring at Liam’s hands with an unreadable expression on his face. “I had thought if I kept you from knowing anything…”

“You mean you were trying to--” Liam shook his head. “You’re an idiot, really.”

“Well, naturally.” Break said lightly.

“You do realize this is the last time.”

“The last time what?”

He spoke to the table, not to the man across from it. “This is the last time I will forgive you for keeping me in the dark. Just this once I’ll let it go. But lie to me one more time, Xerxes Break, keep one more secret from me,” he looked up at Break, fixing him with a glare, “And I swear, this friendship ends.”

“I do suppose that was called for, on my part.” Break murmured, his eye thoughtful.

“It was. Now,” Liam went to pulling his gloves back on, “bearing in mind what we just discussed, everyone I ask about the search for Lady Sharon tells me to come to you. Have you found her?”

Palming a candy, Break rolled it in his hand, “I’d rather not get into that.” At Liam’s renewed glare he smiled. “Later. I promise you. But the matter is not completely resolved yet.”

“And exactly how many years will it take to ‘resolve’?” Liam asked, his voice heavy with sarcasm.

“Now you _are_ being prickly.”

“Perhaps I am,” Liam tugged his left glove the rest of the way onto his hand with an annoyed gesture. “But I have good reason to be.”

“Yes,” Break’s eye lingered on his hands for one long moment then he tossed him the candy he had been toying with, “Here.” he said as Liam brought his hands up to catch it. “It hardly makes up for… any of it, but--”

Liam caught the candy, cheerful and brightly wrapped, “But what?” he asked. But Break had taken the moment Liam had been distracted to disappear. With a sigh Liam pocketed the candy for later, after so many years of Break he was used to the man disappearing at completely random points. 

That look on Break’s face, the one he hadn’t ever seen there before --it had looked a little like regret, hadn’t it?-- perhaps he didn’t always come and go at _completely_ random points.

All the same, there was still the missing Lady Sharon and a very much there Oz Vessalius to deal with. “He had better explain things more, next time,” Liam muttered. “I hate having to work it all out for myself.” he glowered at the stack of notes of the table. “It makes this far too vague.”

 

\----------------------------------------------

 

Break closed the door and sighed, leaning back against it. That had not gone as he had wanted it too. Or as he had expected it to, for that matter. Then again, Liam always managed to do the one thing he _hadn’t_ planned for.

Like defending his secret to Barma.

With a wince, he had not wanted that to happen --to _need_ to happen, Break pushed himself away from the door. His rooms were three corridors over but this was the room given to Lady Sharon, and wouldn’t Pandora be surprised to find her in it.

Not that she was in any condition to be back to her work, the poison that Nightray rat had given her would be a few more days before fully working it’s way out of her system, but Break had planning on keeping her safe recovery secret until she had woken anyway.

“You’ll likely be furious with me too,” he muttered, glancing at the bed where Sharon was lay, asleep. “That seems to be a theme of today, my old friends being angry with me. Not,” he added after a moment’s thought, “That I don’t deserve it, just a bit.”

 

\----------------------------------------------

**TBC**


	21. Chapter 21

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Whoops. It's been a hellova year. My bad guys, I'll try to get the rest of these chapters up asap.
> 
> Hi Liam, meet Oz. What, you’ve already meet? No, technically that was Jack. No, really. 
> 
> Also I took a bit of liberty with the idea that one contractor can sense another, since Lily recognizes Liam as a contractor apparently on sight. I assume that’s kind of a thing, if only a fairly close range thing.

**Part Two**

**Chapter Twenty-one**

\----------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

_“Did you hear?”_

 

_“Have you heard?”_

 

_“Yes, I have, have you?”_

 

_“Yes,”_

 

_“Yes.”_

 

_“The Vessalius boy,”_

 

_“He is awake!”_

 

_“Has Barma been told?”_

 

_“He is not at Pandora; the messenger should reach him soon though.”_

 

_“This shall be…”_

 

_“Interesting?”_

 

_“I was thinking of entertaining. For me, at least. Less so for the rest of you. Do have a good time trying to ensnare the hero boy.”_

 

_“…”_

 

_“Lady Cheryl can be quite frightening sometimes.”_

 

_“I was thinking the exact same thing.”_

 

_“So was I.”_

 

\----------------------------------------------

 

It was not the way that Liam would have chosen to be introduced to Oz Vessalius --or at least, Oz Vessalius when he was in control of his own body-- in fact, it wasn’t how he would have chosen to be introduced to _anyone_ never mind someone so important. Half killing the heir to the Vessalius house by hitting him with a door was not the best introduction. Men had been sentenced to death for doing less harm than that to a member of the four Ducal houses.

But when Break hauled him to his feet and introduced him as “Mister Liam, he’s a member of Pandora, and also a very important friend of mine.” Liam had to suppress the urge to roll his eyes in front a of a member of nobility at the way Break always introduced him like that. Not even Lady Sharon got the introduction of ‘very important friend of mine’. Then again, Break didn’t have many real friends to speak of, most people he manipulated more than he befriended --and he was never sure what set him apart from the former category.

Oz Vessalius had a surprised look on his face. “Friend…?” he echoed, his voice incredulous.

“Yep,” Break said, still clinging to Liam’s arm and hanging from him so heavily he had to lean the other way to keep from falling over. “We’ve had a great friendship for ten years!”

Annoyed Liam shoved him off his arm. “Get away from me.”

“Eh?” The Vessalius heir had a very skeptical look on his face. Then his expression cleared and he smiled a smile so innocent it had to be fake. “So you do have friends…!” he said, with such sincere surprise that it had to be just as false as the smile. There was more to Oz Vessalius than it seemed, apparently.

Break glowered at him, “What is that supposed to smile mean? For some reason it makes me very angry.” With a shrug he dismissed it after a moment, pacing away from them as he threw his hands up, “Oh well, let it be. I wanted to explain to Oz as well, so you both understand the Miss’ condition. Let me tell you the things that happened on that night--”

And naturally Break had to tell the story in such a way as to spin it out as long as possible as he led them to the room where a recovering Lady Sharon slept. He made it sound as if she wasn’t going to be on the other side of the doors and then opened them to reveal that she was both there and, it seemed, well enough for the time being.

She was pale and still asleep after her ordeal but aside from that seemed no worse for wear. There was no way to accuse a Nightray of kidnapping a Rainsworth without casing major strife between the four Ducal houses so Liam had the distinct impression that this was an incident that would be swept under the preverbal carpet by all those who knew about it, despite the severity of the crime Vincent Nightray had committed --Liam noticed the glitter in Break’s eyes when he spoke about the other adopted Nightray and it was not a pleasant one (he knew rage when he saw it).

Oz Vessalius seemed surprised that Lord Vincent wasn’t going to be punished, then again,he had spent the past ten years in the Abyss and could be expected not to know much about the politics of the houses.

But before more could really be discussed Lady Sharon was awake and busy yelling at Break for being stupid. Both he and Lord Oz slipped out when her furious words turned to tears and she collapsed against Break, sobbing.

When he wasn’t being possessed by his famous ancestor Oz Vessalius seemed smaller, more introverted, with a smile that was unfitting for a young boy’s face. Or rather… Liam did the math and realized that this was no boy, he was older than both Lady Sharon and Raven, although the Abyss had altered his aging.

Liam had been around people who did not age for most of his life --both his master and closest friends-- but there was something different about Lord Oz. When one spoke to him they did not get the impression of many years packed into a body too young for them but like there was an entire decade that he had somehow skipped by, not even touching. While it was slightly disconcerting Liam had quite a lot of practice --Break and his master again-- with ignoring things that would have made another man extremely uncomfortable.

“Xarks-nii?” Lord Oz repeated what Lady Sharon had called Break as she sobbed into his chest.

“Ah, she means Xerxes.” Liam explained. “She used to call him that.” They put some distance between them and the door behind which they knew Lady Sharon would still be crying --a moment of weakness they both knew she would appreciate it if they did not witness.

From the way that Lord Oz asked if Break had always been as he was when Liam explained that they had known each other for years it was clear that he did not know Break all that well. Though few could argue that they knew Break, totally and completely, but Liam at least remembered how he had been shortly after he had arrived from the Abyss.

He could not have explained later why he told Lord Oz about the way Break had been years ago, after all, he had just meet the Vessalius heir in person not that long ago, but it might have had something in common with they way he had leapt to defend the validity of Jack Vessalius before. 

There was something about him that made Liam talk more than he should have, perhaps because Lord Oz turned to him with a smile, “You’ve know Break for a long time then?”

“I suppose you could say that. I’ve known him since he came from the Abyss.”

“You must be very patient.” at the confused glance Liam gave him Lord Oz explained, “Well, you say you’ve known him for some time. And you haven’t strangled him yet.” Lord Oz smiled very brightly. “Besides,I’ve never heard him introduce anyone as his friend before, not even Sharon. Which means you’re somebody special.”

“Not particularly, Lord Oz.” Liam said quickly. And he wasn’t. He was a servant, who, despite being proficient at his work, was not partially of note beyond that.

“So are you a contractor?”

The lie was so practiced, so easy, Liam would have had to stop and think if he had meant to tell the truth. “No, I’m not.”

Lord Oz paused, peering at Liam with a small frown. “That’s odd.”

“Exactly how so?” Liam asked, carefully.

“Well, there’s this thing that I feel, when I’m near another contractor,” Lord Oz shrugged. “Not very strong, and sometimes it’s so faint I don’t feel it at all, but I get it from you.”

“I’ve spent my entire life surrounded by contractors, Lord Oz, the only explanation I can provide is that.”

“If you say so,” said the young lord. “Maybe it does… rub off or something. And by the way, stop calling me ‘Lord Oz’. I’m not really Lord material.”

“You are the heir to the Vessalius Dukedom.” Liam pointed out, as gently as he could. It was quite likely that no one had ever explained to this young man exactly _what_ being the eldest child of one’s household meant.

“I suppose I am,” he shrugged as if this meant little to him. Perhaps it did. “Anyway, I there’s something I need to know, but I’m not sure who I should be asking.”

“You mean, something in the vein of classified information?”

“I need to know about,” Lord Oz glanced around at the hallway, checking that it was empty. “The Tragedy of Sablier. Alice, she’s my chain, Break said she’s known here as B-Rabbit?”

“Yes.” Liam said shortly. He did not have pleasant memories about B-Rabbit.

“She’s looking for her memories, she lost them somehow. And when we where in Cheshire’s dimension--”

“You were taken to _Cheshire’s_ dimension?” He couldn’t stop the interruption, he’d found records of the chain called the Cheshire Cat, one intelligent enough to create it’s own dimension to trap victims.

“Yes, Alice, Gil, Break, and I. Didn’t Break tell you?”

“No.”

Maybe he read something from the flat way Liam said the word but Lord Oz didn’t comment on it. “Well, while I was there, I came across something that hinted Alice’s memories might have something to do with the Tragedy. So I need to know more about it.”

“Unfortunately that _is_ classified.” he told him. 

“Then is there someone I can go to who would tell me?”

“But perhaps if you were to ask…” Liam paused, wondering why exactly the offer to help this young man was already on the tip of his tongue. Well, if Break had made such an effort to save him, he was _important_ in some manner; important in the way that Liam was most certainly not.

“Yes?” Lord Oz asked.

“Do you know how Pandora is organized?”

“I didn’t even know Pandora existed until I came back from the Abyss. And since then I haven’t really had a lot of time to ask questions.”

“Pandora is, in theory, ruled by the four Ducal houses, one of which is your own Vessalius family.”

“Then is there someone from one of the houses that I can talk to?” Lord Oz asked. “Wait, you said ‘in theory’. Is there a house that has more control over Pandora?”

“The day to day matters of Pandora are dealt with by the head of the Barma household, Lord Rufus.”

“Then can I speak to him?”

“He isn’t at Pandora at the moment, and he is usually very careful about who he has private meetings with. If you wrote him a request… perhaps he would see you.”

“How would I get the message to him? You said he isn’t at Pandora.”

“That would be the easy part, Lord Oz.” Liam took his glasses off and cleaned them on a cloth he pulled from a pocket. “Lord Barma is my master. I can deliver a letter myself.”

“Really?” there was excitement in Lord Oz’s voice, enough that Liam glanced up without thinking.

Because he was a contractor Lord Oz was completely clear in his vision, though there was no sign of B-Rabbit hiding inside of him. Liam was always so careful about what he looked at while his glasses were off the sight took him by surprise, he took a step back before he could stop himself and felt himself going pale.

“Are you alright?” Lord Oz asked.

“Perfectly.” Quickly he shoved his glasses back onto his nose. “Now, the sooner you get that request to me, the sooner it will reach Lord Barma.”

“Oh, right.” Lord Oz frowned at him. “Are you sure you’re alright? You’re really pale.”

It was truly unfortunate that the Vessalius heir was perceptive. “I am fine, Lord Oz.” he repeated.

And although he didn’t look like he believed him Lord Oz went to write up the request.

Liam mentally winced at the thought of what Lord Barma was going to do when handed _that_ particular letter. There was no way he could claim noninvolvement now.

But, then again, things had changed.

 

\----------------------------------------------

**TBC**


	22. Chapter 22

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Now we’ve finally gotten to the ‘Let’s go visit Ada’ arc, which Liam, unfortunately, isn’t in. Then again, that gives me lots of room to start making my own scenes and make up a bit of a sub plotline.

**Part Two**

**Chapter Twenty-two**

\----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

Liam was so buried his paperwork that he didn’t notice that there was someone at the door to his office until they knocked on the doorjamb. When he glanced up Lord Oscar waved at him then turned to someone behind him, “This is where his office is. It was him you were talking about, right?”

A girl stepped around Lord Oscar and peered at him. “That’s glasses man.” she said.

“I found her wandering the halls on delivery duty.” Lord Oscar explained to Liam. “I don’t know if you two have _officially_ met, outside of some unfortunate circumstances a long time ago, Liam, this is Alice.” he put a hand on top of the girl’s head and she scowled up at him. “Alice, his name is Liam, not ‘twitchy glasses man’.”

“I forgot what Oz called him.” she muttered. “And I got lost.”

Lord Oscar chuckled, ruffling the girl’s hair. “Not a hard thing to do, since you’re not part of Pandora. Well, I’ve got something to get to; do you know how to get back to your room, Alice?”

“I’ll figure it out.” she said, eyes on her feet, hands clasped behind her.

“Alright then. Good to see you, Liam.” And, with a wave he departed, leaving the girl behind.

For one long moment he and the girl watched each other warily. He had a gun in the first drawer of his desk but this was a Chain, and moreover, a Chain known to wield a scythe, it was likely she could kill him before he even opened the drawer.

“I’ve met you before,” she said finally, still inspecting her toes intently. “Haven’t I?”

“Yes.” Liam replied. “I was there when Lord Oz appeared at Pandora for the first time.”

“No, before that.” for the first time she looked up at him, her face a frown but her eyes intent. “It was one of the times I attacked Pandora, wasn’t it?”

“Yes.” he said simply, his hand starting a slow motion toward the top drawer, just in case.

“I remember those times a little, you see,” she scraped a toe on the floor, “And I thought you were there. Except you were only this tall,” she held out a hand that wasn’t much higher than the level of his desk. “And I remember I almost killed you.”

“I seem to recall something like that.” Liam said carefully, his fingers were just touching the handle of the drawer; slowly he wrapped them about it.

“Well, I’m not like that anymore.” she said. “I’m _Alice_. I have a contractor. I’m not just B-Rabbit anymore, its different now.”

“That is--”

“So what I want to know,” she continued, cutting him off, “Is why you’re still afraid of me. I mean, I _could_ kill you before you pulled whatever it is out of that drawer to defend yourself but that doesn’t mean I’m going to. I’m looking for my memories, not to kill random Pandora people. Besides, the Clown would be angry and irritating if I killed you.”

“I see.” he said, but did not let go of the drawer. B-Rabbit had almost killed him once, even if she looked like a little girl now he wasn’t about to let his guard down. “Lord Oscar said you were delivering something.”

“Yeah, this,” She held up an envelope which was sealed with a blob of wax. In the wax had been pressed the seal of the Vessalius Dukedom. “Oz said this was yours. He also said that because it’s my memories we’re looking for I’m supposed to thank you for offering to deliver it.” Slowly she walked forward to lay the letter on the very edge on his desk. “Here. Sorry about the whole trying to kill you once thing.” she retreated back to the door as he reached out with his free hand to take the envelope.

He still hadn’t taken his other hand from the handle of the desk drawer. “Apology accepted.”

She glanced back over her shoulder. “Then tell me where the place people sleep is. I want to find my way back to my room.”

He told her and then had to pry his hand off of the drawer handle when she was gone. There was a red mark on his palm from where he’d held the handle hard enough to leave an impression on his skin.

While B-Rabbit --Alice? Was there a difference?-- hadn’t made an overtly threatening gestures Liam was a man who had spent the better part of of his childhood absolutely terrified of Chains and some habits might fade but never completely leave.

Finally he glanced down at the envelope in his other hand. “I suppose I should leave for the Barma mansion,” he said, mostly to himself.

“You really are delivering that yourself?”

Liam’s head jerked up at the unexpected reply. Leaning on the doorway Lord Oscar was regarding him with unusually solemnity.

“I thought you had business to attend to.” Liam said, ignoring the question.

“It didn’t take long to deal with. The agent I needed to speak to was actually still in the field. So I thought I’d make sure Alice didn’t eat you.”

“Is that likely?”

“No. She seems to think more like a girl than a Chain most of the time. But you don’t like Chains and she _is_ one no matter what she looks like.” Lord Oscar smiled at him, “What do you think of the charming new friend of Oz’s?”

“… she’s very blunt.”

Lord Oscar laughed. “That she is. But you’ll agree, she doesn’t seem like your average Chain.”

“No, she doesn’t. I don’t think I’ve ever encountered one that acted so human-like. That must mean she has a lot of power.”

“Or she’s an incredibly special Chain. Or both. Now,” Lord Oscar changed the subject back to the original topic. “Are you really going to deliver that,” he indicated the note, “To your master?”

“Of course,” Liam replied. “I said I would.”

“There are messengers in Pandora.”

“But if I hand deliver it this will be read by Lord Barma sooner.”

“Liam, think. Up until now you’ve denied all knowledge of what Break is up to. You delivering this letter, from my nephew who is undoubtably part of whatever Break is doing, isn’t going to send a good message.”

“You think Lord Barma will assume that I’ve been plotting with Break and Sharon from the very beginning? I doubt he would leap to such an extreme conclusion.”

“Then consider it this way, you might not have known anything important before but giving this to him implies that you might now know something he would very much like you to tell him.”

“You’ve been talking to Break, haven’t you?” Liam rose from his desk to start gather paperwork into piles to do later. “What neither of you seem to take into account is the fact that if I delay this letter by sending it with a messenger than Lord Barma is going to be furious that correspondence from the reincarnation of Jack Vessalius wasn’t immediately taken to him. There isn’t really a pleasant way to end this for me. I don’t want to…” he sighed and shook his head.

“Your master has quite the temper, doesn’t he?” Lord Oscar asked with a knowing look in his eyes.

Liam turned his back on him, supposedly so he could start slipping papers into a bag in preparation for their trip to the Barma mansion but more so Lord Oscar wouldn’t be able to read his expression. “One could say that.”

“Liam, does--” but Lord Oscar cut himself off. “No, you probably wouldn’t tell me.”

With a snap Liam closed the bag. “I should leave for the estate now. I should be back before dark depending on whether Lord Barma wants to send the reply back with me or not.” Lifting the bag off the desk he passed Lord Oscar leaving the room.

The other man reached out to grab his arm, his grip gentle despite the quickness of the movement, “This is not a good idea.”

Liam pulled his arm free. “I don’t have a choice. Besides, Break has been trying to get Lord Barma to meet with him about the Tragedy for years, this is his chance.”

“You’re doing this to help Break?”

“Of course,”

“That’s what I expected. After all, you’ve only just met Oz; you had no reason to agree to help him out of the blue.”

“If it helps Break accomplish whatever he wants to accomplish…” Liam sighed. “Then it’s worth it.”

“I suppose that’s your choice to make.” Lord Oscar said.

“Yes.” Liam said. “It is.” 

 

\----------------------------------------------

 

“He’s gone to the Barma mansion to deliver the letter.”

Break looked up from the book he was reading so fast Oscar winced in sympathy for his neck. “Tell me you aren’t talking about Liam.”

“I am.”

Putting the book aside Break frowned at Oscar. “Why would he do that?”

“He has no choice.”

“The stupid Duke is going to…”

“I know.”

“ _Why_ is he doing this?” Break snapped. “He knows what’s going to happen when he hands that letter to Barma.”

“He wants to help.”

Break flinched as if he’d been struck. “…this,” he said finally, “Is why I did not want him involved.”

“You can’t ask him just to sit around and ignore the fact you’re up to something, it’s not in his nature. And,” Oscar put an arm out to block Break as the other man rose and moved for the door. “I hope you’re not going to do something foolish like trying to go to the Barma mansion to look for him. You know how much Lord Barma hates unannounced visitors. And… you could make the situation there worse.”

“That wasn’t what I had in mind.” Break said, pushing past him. “I’ll wait, pleasant and patient, until he gets back. But I want to see what sort of reply that Duke gives so I’m going to where Liam will go as soon as he comes back to Pandora.”

“His room?”

“No, his office.” Break paused and turned back to Oscar. “Do you have something you could distract your bratty nephew and his friends with? I don’t want Oz and the rest getting up to anything while I can’t supervise.”

“Actually,” Oscar felt in his jacket and drew out a folded letter, “I happen to have just the thing. I recently received a letter from his sister. I trust a little visit to her tomorrow will be just the thing.”

“Perfect.” Break said and then, leaving Oscar to plot how exactly he would spring this surprise on his nephew, left.

He knew the way to Liam’s office by heart, which was unsurprising as his own was right across the hall, and once he was there he settled into the chair behind the paper-laden desk and popped a long-lasting candy into his mouth. He had some time to wait.

 

\----------------------------------------------

**TBC**


	23. Chapter 23

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> More buildup for the big meeting with Barma!

**Part Two**

**Chapter Twenty-three**

\--------------------------------------------------------------------

 

All Liam wanted to do was sleep. He had been in such a hurry to get out of the Barma mansion that he hadn’t even stopped in the kitchens to see Mistress Agathea and Miss Catherine but he had known they would understand. The ride back had seemed much longer, but that was probably the various aches settling farther into his bones with every bounce of the carriage.

He’s never been so glad to get back to Pandora. Especially since… well, it had not been one of the pleasanter visits to the Barma household. Mistress Agathea had been right, for some reason Lord Barma had been building illusions of Break; there had been one in the room when he’d gone to deliver the letter.

It had stood there, staring straight ahead, like a doll until Duke Barma had dismissed it. The way the illusions dissolved had never been pleasant to watch but it was doubly worse when it was someone you knew. Once, when he had been much younger, the sight of all the flesh stripping off of, thankfully, an illusion of Lady Sharon and her bones dissolving into dust had almost made him hysterical.

After years of exposure he had gotten better at keeping his composure but watching Break dissolve into nothing had been an experience that he would not care to repeat.

And while traveling all through the night had made him rather fuzzy around the edges… it had been better than lingering in the Barma mansion when he was supposed to be delivering the Duke’s reply to Lord Oz.

That same reply was sitting on his desk, staring at him in an accusing manner. Or perhaps that was exhaustion setting in. He really should find Lord Oz and give him the reply but now the he’d sat down the thought of getting back up again was… very… unappealing…

“Liam?” the voice seemed to come from rather far away but the hand on his arm was very close by. “Are you alright?”

He pried open eyes he hadn’t realized were closed with some effort. “Why am I on the floor?” he asked, after a moment’s evaluation.

Break was leaning over him; his was the hand that was on his arm. “You fell out of your chair, I think,” he frowned, “When was the last time you had a good night’s sleep?”

“There’s no time for that.” Liam said, he sat up and his protested the movement with a dull ache. “I have work… things that have to be done. How long was I asleep?”

“I don’t know, I was waiting for you to come back in your office, it only occurred to me a bit ago that you might head to your rooms first.”

“My office? Why were you there?”

“I wanted to talk to you.”

“About…” he let the sentence trail like the lead it was.

“You delivered the letter. Why?”

“Oh.” Liam sighed and let himself slip back to the floor. “You’ve been talking to Lord Oscar. I suppose you’ll say just about the same things.”

“Why did you go to the Barma mansion?”

“Because it wasn’t worth the trouble of not going. Besides, you’ve been looking for a way to get to Lord Barma for some time.”

“How is that relevant?”

Liam gestured vaguely at the letter on the desk. “He wants to see you too, along with Lord Oz. See for yourself if you don’t believe me.” Break sat himself down in the chair that Liam had been sitting in not too long ago. With an effort of will Liam pulled himself to his feet and went to the bed where he’d thrown his coat. While he put it in the wardrobe where it belonged he heard the rustling of paper that told him Break was reading the letter. He didn’t worry about the fact that he must have opened it; Liam knew from experience that when he went to deliver it the letter would show no sign of being tampered with.

“Well, well, well.” Break said, slowly. “The Duke wants to talk. He didn’t happen to mention why he sudden is willing to speak to me?”

A vivid memory of the illusion of Break dissolving into dust made Liam wince. Thankfully he was facing the other direction and there was no way Break could have seen it. “No. Lord Barma gave no indication.”

“Hmmmm.” the thoughtful word was drawn out long. “Interesting. By the way, Oz isn’t at Pandora, so you might as well let me give this to him.”

“Was he sent out after an illegal contractor?”

“Hardly. Lord Oscar took him to see his sister. The Rabbit and Gilbert tagged along. Still,” Break tapped the letter against the desk, “They should be back soon. Plenty of time to get ready for the deadline. The day after tomorrow isn’t very much warning. Do you know why he wants to meet at a playhouse?”

“Neutral ground, I would hazard to guess. Or--” he paused, wondering if he should mention the thought unfolding in his mind.

“Yes?” Break prompted.

“Nothing,” he shook his head. “I was just wondering how likely it is that Lord Barma honestly wants to see the show.” he said, instead of the ominous idea he had.

That got an honest laugh from Break. “I distinctly remember you telling me that that Duke has a special distain for theatre.”

“There’s always the possibility.” he said, as neutrally as he could.

“I suppose.” Break said, and gave him the look that said he knew that he was keeping something back, but would let it go, for now. He tucked the letter into his coat. “You went out of your way for my sake to get this. I would like to point out that I appreciate it.”

“You needed a way to get to Lord Barma.” he said with a shrug.

“That is true. However… are you alright?”

Liam blinked at him, “… what are you talking about?”

“Let’s pretend we already did the part where you act like you don’t know what I’m talking about and we skip ahead to where you tell me how much you paid for getting me this little invite? And we’ll skip the part where you protest that too.”

“I paid for it with fear of… just with fear.”

“Nothing more?”

“Nothing more.” Liam repeated, firmly.

Break looked for a moment like he was about to press the subject but apparently he decided against it. “Alright then. I’ll give this,” he touched his hand to the inner pocket the letter was in, “To Oz when he gets back, I can guarantee I’ll see him before you do. In the meantime I’d advise you to get some sleep.”

“I’ll have plenty of time to sleep when I’m dea--”

“Don’t say that.” Break interrupted, and when Liam frowned at him he added, “It’s bad luck, eh? Wouldn’t want to invite it with this,” he touched his pocket, “On the way, would we?”

“No, I suppose not.” he admitted.

“I’m serious about the sleep. You look tired.”

“Because I am.” Liam admitted. “It won’t affect my work.”

“I know,” Break rose from the chair and went to leave, “It never does. Get some sleep.”

When he was gone Liam glanced at the pile of work on his desk. “It can wait.” he muttered finally and went to bed to the aches settle.

He’d lied to Break, of _course_ he had lied to Break, but… well, what didn’t know would make him feel less guilty about Liam going to the Barma mansion. Besides, it hadn’t been that bad, only a few demands, only a few blows, and he had been gone. It could have been worse.

Much worse.

 

\----------------------------------------------

 

Barma frowned at the illusion he had created. The illusion grinned back in that way Barma was sure he did just too irritate him.

“I know your secret, Xerxes Break,” he told it, “And you, Red Eyed Ghost, are going to tell me what you want you know, whether you wish to or not.”

With a flick of his hand he dismissed the illusion and watched it crumble into nothing with a contemplative smile on his face. “For once, I cannot wait for the play.”

 

\----------------------------------------------

**TBC**


	24. Chapter 24

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It’s interesting to get into the Visit to Lord Barma part of the manga, there’s a lot going on with Break and Liam and writing the encounter from Liam's POV was a lot of fun.

 

**Part Two**

**Chapter Twenty-four**

\------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

It was strange that Lord Barma wanted him at the theatre ahead of the other guests; Liam had assumed he would have gone with the rest of the group. It was even stranger that when he arrived the theatre was completely empty. That is was a full two hours before the play started didn’t matter, even if it made sense for there to be no one in the audience yet --very few theatre goers where _that_ dedicated-- but there should have been the hum of action from behind the stage, where the crew and actors would be preparing.

But the theatre was silent of even that background noise.

It might have taken some time to find Lord Barma in the theatre, but he had his Chain out and a massive bird hovering above the seats in the audience was not something one could miss, even if they wanted to.

Lord Barma was sitting in the aisle seat of the tenth row, his arms crossed over his chest and his eyes close; not as if he was sleeping but rather as if he was concentrating on something. He opened one eye as Liam approached and the look he fixed on him was not a pleased one. “This evening is not going to go as you and Xerxes Break expect.” he said bluntly.

“Lord Barma?” Liam tired to make the question as neutral as possible even as his mind scrambled to think of what exactly Lord Barma could be referring to. “I don’t know what--”

“In light of this,” the Duke continued as if Liam had not been speaking, “I feel it necessary to warn you that should you purposefully reveal what I am doing to any of my guests I will make you regret it. This is your opportunity to help me, Liam, and to show yourself not as useless as you usually are.”

“O-of course?” as much as he tried not to make the statement sound like a question it did anyway.

“I have some very important plans for tonight.” Lord Barma said. A thin smile touched his lips. “And, I have no doubt, it will prove to be a most interesting show.”

 

\----------------------------------------------

 

_“Have you heard?”_

 

_“Yes, have you heard?”_

 

_“No, I have not.”_

 

_“You haven’t?”_

 

_“No, I have not. Tell me.”_

 

_“Lord Barma,”_

 

_“Yes, he,”_

 

_“Has agreed to meet with Oz Vessalius.”_

 

_“_ What? _”_

 

_“They’re meeting at the theatre to discuss something about the Tragedy.”_

 

_“Wait, Lady Cheryl! You can’t leave now, the meeting is still in session!”_

 

_“I have better places to be at this very moment. …Ruf, you fool.”_

 

\----------------------------------------------

 

At the least Break and the others were on time, Liam had been told to meet them at the door and show them to the box where they would meet with Lord Barma. Frankly had they been late Liam wasn’t sure his nerves could have taken what was going on inside the theatre for much longer.

As much was he worked not to, as he led the group --who had put on what must have been their best clothes, like he had, for this meeting-- into the theatre, he accidentally met Break’s eyes. Break raised an eyebrow in a silent question but Liam shook his head, he couldn’t tell Break anything this time.

It was fortunate that Lord Oz, B-Rabbit, and Raven were all busy talking to each other because they soon pulled Break into close conversation with Lord Oz and away from trying to tease hints about what was to come from him. Lord Barma had made it very clear that the consequences of betraying what he had planned for the group would be very nasty for Liam.

So when he opened the door to his master’s box he very carefully didn’t let his face change when he saw his master and the rather circular, manically smiling man Lord Barma had used in public for himself after the second assassination attempt who was, for reasons Liam didn’t even want to fathom, standing on the ceiling.

“Sorry for disrupting, Master Rufus.” he said, not all that sure which he should be talking to, “I’ve brought along Oz Vessalius and the others--” and then a voice interrupted him cheerily. 

“Ah, today’s such a beautiful day for tea drinking!” said the older woman in the wheelchair, who smiled at them amiably, “Hello, everyone.”

His attempted not to let his face give him away failed horribly when he saw it was Lady Cheryl, or, the illusion on Lady Cheryl, he was very good at spotting the difference. It was a good thing that he was in the front of the group or his shocked expression would have given it all away. He remembered very clearly the last time the actual Lady Cheryl had admonished Lord Barma not to make illusions, it was a _very_ strong admonishment, and yet here she was, smiling cheerily at them. “La… Lady Rainsworth?” he couldn’t stop himself from spluttering

“Here?” said the illusion in a rather confused manner.

“Why… why are you here?” Liam demanded, not sure exactly how he should treat this illusion, it was always awkward at times like this.

“Because I was invited by Ruf as well.” explained Lady Cheryl --or rather, the illusion of her, he _hated_ when his master did this-- but luckily the illusion looked past him to the group entering and spoke to one of them, “This is the first time we’ve met, Oz Vessalius.”

As Lord Oz moved forward to present the beginning of the delicate dance of manners that passed for a greeting among nobles, along with a rose, Liam let himself be pushed to the back of the room by the flow of the people. His role from now on, or so he rather hoped, would just be to stand, as important as a piece of furniture, now that the contact with his master had been made.

All the same, considering what was going on he was happy to be virtual furniture in this situation. It was easier.

Break had drifted to the rail of the box, overtly to see the opening act of the play but covertly so he could sneak a look at Liam. The other man had retreated to the wall and was standing with unnatural stiffness that told Break he was highly uncomfortable. He was also doing that trick, the one Break wondered if he even knew he was doing sometimes, where he had himself just about as noticeable as the piece of furniture next to him.

Something had Liam nervous, no that wasn’t it, something had him _scared_. Which begged the question what exactly was going on.

Break looked out over the heads of the audience to the stage, where the play was beginning. “This is such an exaggerated comedy.” he said scornfully.

 

\----------------------------------------------

**TBC**


	25. Chapter 25

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> At last, the chapter I’ve been both dreading and looking forward to for a while. So much Important Plot.

**Part Two**

**Chapter Twenty-five**

\------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

The interview with Lord Barma deteriorated, despite the fact that Lord Oz spoke to him in the politest form of address it was possible to use. It wouldn’t matter, Liam knew this from experience, the persona that Lord Barma used for his illusionary self did not respond well to actual reason. Or to unexpected changes, for some reason.

Both he and the real Lord Barma watched impassively as the illusion worked itself into a tea swigging, bouncing hysteria. To anyone who didn’t know this was an act, namely Lord Oz, Raven, and B-Rabbit, it must have been rather startling to watch, a large, circular man chanting “Broken,” to himself and while aggressively stirring tea that he had apparently --against all the laws of common sense-- been storing in his hat.

Then, for reasons Liam himself couldn’t fathom, the illusion of Lord Barma screeched, “I won’t admit it!!” and threw itself out of the box, falling, coattails flapping, down into the audience in the balcony.

“Wait!” Lord Oz called over the balcony he and Raven were now leaning over, “Did I say something wrong?” he asked Raven.

Lady Cheryl chucked, “He’s the same as usual. Ruf will go crazy when he meets with something unexpected. He will recover after a while.” Whenever Lord Barma made illusions of Lady Cheryl he tended to make her in one of her more magnanimous modes.

“Such a terrible personality!” Lord Oz growled, and then seemed to notice that Lord Barma had really disappeared in the darkness of the audience below. He swore and called, “I’ve gotta chase after him! Alice, Gil, let’s go!” then bolted out of the box.

B-Rabbit hurried after him, but Raven hesitated, long enough that Break gave him a disconcertingly sly smile and a question about being left behind that seemed to do with more than just the current circumstances. But when Raven took off after Lord Oz that left only Break and he in the box --Lord Barma (the real one) had left shortly before Raven, probably following his bouncing other self.

“So what has you so quiet?” Break asked him, fixing the same sly smile he had given Raven on him. “Not a word from you this entire time, that’s odd of you, Liam. Wouldn’t you say that was odd, Lady Cheryl?”

“Indeed.” the illusion said mildly, without Duke Barma directly controlling them his illusions often acted much less lifelike.

“There’s isn’t for me much to say.” Liam told Break carefully.

“Well, why don’t you start with what’s actually going on here, hmm?”

Liam stole a sideway glance at the illusion, who was watching him through slitted eyes. It had been left here as a watchdog, Barma would hear everything he said through it. “I can’t tell you anything, Xerxes Break.” he said, his voice absolutely neutral.

“You _can’t_?” Break repeated, his eyebrows going up as he processed the wording. Liam could see the moment the pin dropped when Break’s expression changed minutely and he glanced over at the illusion. “Of course. Wouldn’t want you to tell me something you weren’t supposed to. And, besides, I should find the others.” he left and only the look he gave over his shoulder hinted that he had something destructive in mind. 

After this many years with Xerxes Break as his friend Liam knew _that_ look anywhere.

He sighed and took his glasses off to clean them. For the moment the most innocent place to be was right here, under the watch of Lord Barma’s illusion. He’d said nothing that would overtly tip his master off but he’d as good as told Break what was going on. No doubt Break would have eventually figured out that everyone else in the entire building was an illusion since not one of the audience or any of the actors on stage had showed an inkling of surprise that a gentleman had jumped from one of the boxes but this way was faster.

It wasn’t until the illusion of Lady Cheryl threw back it’s head in a silent scream that Liam shoved his glasses back on, watching the illusion dissolve, flesh stripping itself from bone and turning to dust as the bones crumbled away and the clothes decayed away. The illusions his master made all too often looked like they died in agony. He would bet strongly that Break had been the one to dispel the illusion, not Barma, it would explain why the illusion had screamed as it was destroyed, the Mad Hatter was terrifying.

With the babysitting illusion gone he was free to make his way out of the box and down to the ground floor of the theatre, in hopes that the others had found their way there. Since the illusion had originally been cast from a spot on the ground floor that would have been where it would be weakest, Break would have been able to sense that once he realized the scale of the illusion and probably would have gone there to destroy it.

He’d been expecting the entire group be on the ground floor, he’d been expecting Lord Barma --the real one-- to be talking with them, he had _not_ been expecting Lord Barma to be in the middle of attacking Break, who had blood spotting his collar.

Of course, the price of destroying the illusion would have made Break cough blood again, he would be weak for sometime afterward and… and now was not the time to Break to be in a fight, especially not with Lord Barma! What had Break been thinking picking a fight with Duke Barma? That idiot was going to get himself killed, Lord Barma was very good with that fan of his, it might not look like much of a weapon but it was more than enough to kill.

All these thoughts passed through his mind in a second as he stared at the scene, frozen for a moment. Then he threw himself between his friend and his master, one arm out to block Break from harm the other extended toward Lord Barma, palm thrust out in desperation for him to stop. “Please stop! Lord Barma--”

The blow that hit him in the side of his head made him forget what it was exactly he had planned to say as tiny lights exploded in his vision. He staggered, and the world tilted strangely for an instant, he could swear he felt something trickling down his cheek. …blood?

“Liam…” Lord Barma was glaring at him from under his hooded lids, “Useless.” He snapped. “Step aside if you’re not helping.”

Even though his hand was to the side of his head trying to stop it from ringing he didn’t move from in front of Xerxes Break. “But his body--”

Lord Barma cut him off, “His body is weakened because of the contract’s effect --did you really believe nonsense like that?”

That made Liam pause, wasn’t that the reason? Or was there another reason? It wouldn’t be the first time Break had hidden something.

Apparently reading the doubt in his expression Lord Barma asked, “You don’t?”

And then Break was grabbing him and throwing him back him so it was Break shielding him instead of the other way around as Barma advanced with his fan and malicious excitement in his eyes.

“Your condition is like this because this is the second time, isn’t it?” His fan flicked out and Break was thrown backward as he took the blow full in his chest.

He might have been badly hurt but the Duke had pulled the blow so only Break’s coat was cut. Liam wondered briefly why the others, who were on the far side of the battle, had such horrified expressions on their faces and then Break staggered back another step and he too could see what they could.

There was a fully formed illegal contractor seal on Break’s chest.

Everything reeled again as Lord Barma made some sort of remark about the twisted appearance of the seal but all Liam caught was, “It really suits such a sinful person.”

Break laughed, one bitter laugh as he staggered, “…those things…” his words were slurring, as unsteady as he was, “…you needn’t say…”

His stick clattered to the floor only a moment before he collapsed into Liam, who just barely registered it in time to catch him. Liam didn’t fight the urge to sink to the floor with the abrupt weight because suddenly the world was not as solid a place as it had been only a second before.

“Liam… do you know anything about that seal?” Lord Barma was speaking, though to Liam it sounded like it had come from awfully far away.

“…no…” he managed, barely even able to hear his voice over the shock, “…no…”

“But the name, ‘Kevin Regnard’, you know that name, don’t you?”

Of course he knew that name, he spent more time in records than anyone else and it was one of the great tragedy stories of Pandora. It was all he could do to nod, and then he was drowning in the story as Lord Barma solemnly related it. Liam had heard the story a thousand time but it took on a whole new horrible light with _Break_ as the main character.

 

“… fifty years ago…”

“… illegal contractor…” 

“… sacrificed humans for a chain…”

“… was called the Ghostly Red Eyes.”

“… _One hundred and sixteen people died.”_

“… that man was still dragged into the Abyss.”

 

Break had lied to him.

Break had _lied_ to him.

Liam heard nothing else after that.

 

\----------------------------------------------

**TBC**


	26. Chapter 26

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I had the most horrible time getting Gil to say what I wanted him to say, he seemed determined to take an eternity to get to the point. Poor fellow’s too nervous to be brief, he ended up taking up an entire chapter instead of just one scene.

**Part Two**

**Chapter Twenty-six**

\---------------------------------------------------------------

 

Liam slowly came to the realization that he was sitting. When had he sat in a chair? And why was it suddenly chilly?

The usual weight of his coat on his shoulders was gone. When had he taken his coat off?

“Mister Liam?” the recognizable voice of Raven made him look up to see that the man was standing next to him, a bloody cloth in one upraised hand. “Can you… hear me?” Raven asked cautiously.

“Of course I can hear--” Memory returned in that moment and he went to stand --Break collapsed against him, mouth bloody, his jacket torn open to show-- Raven’s hand on his shoulder kept him in his seat. “Where’s Break?”

Raven was frowning at him. “He’s still in the theatre. Oz is dealing with him.”

“Where is…” Liam glanced around then recognized the room they were in as a small alcove of the lobby, separated from the main theatre by distance and draperies. “How did I get out here?”

“You don’t… remember?” Raven asked.

“No.” Liam touched his sleeve, it was cold out here, theaters were built to be warmed mainly by the press of people in them, empty they were chilly. “What happened to my coat?”

“Um,” Raven’s eyes darted from side to side, looking for help, but there was no one to save him. “You took it off.”

“I… did?”

“You put it over Break. In the theatre.”

“I don’t remember that.”

“You were, um, sort of not there at the time.” he offered Liam a weak smile, “After… you know, Lord Barma said Break had done all those things you sort of… well, it it was like we were talking to you but you just couldn’t hear us. Lord Barma even shouted at you. Are you sure you don’t remember any of this?”

“I don’t. I don’t remember anything after…” he winced in memory and reached up to touch the side of his head. It was aching and he could feel that his hair was matted with blood.

Raven held out the bloody cloth for him to take, explaining, “Head wounds. They bleed a lot.”

He took his hand from the wound and noticed that his fingers had fresh blood on them. “It’s still bleeding?” taking the cloth from Raven he held it to the side of the head, which was what Raven had apparently been doing while he’d wandered off to the land of shocked revelations. “Is that… normal?”

“Head wounds,” Raven repeated with a shrug. “Um, do you feel dizzy? That happens sometimes when people get hit in the head.”

There was something strangely amusing about Raven tentatively trying to give him advice like he’d never had any kind of field training and in another situation he might have chuckled at the absurdity of it. However at this very moment he wasn’t feeling especially inclined to chuckle at things.

There had been a betrayal. Things were never going to be quite that same.

“I don’t.” he told Raven, who had been waiting all this time for an answer.

“You still look kind of… um, distant.” The vaguely concerned look on Raven’s face was starting to annoy Liam, especially since there were much larger things he would rather have worried about than why it was still on Raven’s face.

“I’m alright.” He told the other man but those words didn’t exactly ring true when he went to get up and ended up clutching his head, still seated as small lights flashed in front of his eyes.

Seeing this Raven gave a yelp and went to try to steady him with a hand on either shoulder, presumably in case he fell from his chair. After a moment where Liam waited for the world to stop aching quite so much he raised his head and sighed to find one of the hands he had clapped to his head was bloody and his glove was now beyond saving. “That really is annoying.” He pulled the glove off with a sigh.

There was a strange noise from Raven, who had still had his hands on his shoulders but when Liam looked curiously up at him he withdrew quickly.

“Something wrong?” he asked the man.

“Um… nothing,” Raven said. He went to the small table nearby and picked something up from it. “They had some bandages backstage… and you’re still bleeding.”

Liam held out his hand for the bandages and then paused; realizing that tying it around his own head was going to be difficult to do neatly.

As if he was reading his mind Raven offered, “I can help, if you want.”

“Thank you.” Liam said, wondering why the man had returned to starring at his hand. Then he remembered he’d taken off his glove and switched the cloth he’d been dabbing blood away with to cover the hand, hoping the movement looked casual.

Raven took up the bandages and moved around behind him. “You have a lot of scars on your hand.” he said.

“Really. Do I?” Liam replied neutrally.

After a pause Raven wound the bandage around his head, making sure it crossed the wound. “You don’t do fieldwork,” he said as he worked, “and as far as I know you don’t have weapons training. So… why do you have scars?”

Tilting his head back Liam looked up at Raven, “That would be none of your business.” he said levelly.

“No, no,” Raven waved his hands in front of him, “I get it, really. I was a servant before I was adopted into the Nightray family; I’ve seen plenty of servants abused by their masters before.”

“I am not--”

“And I know how hard it is to go against your master, even when you don’t like what he does.” Raven was talking right over him, not even giving him a chance to respond. “But Lord Barma can’t just hit you like that! You might not be a noble but you have rights too, you can quit. I’ll help you find a better employer.”

“In Pandora?” He interjected skeptically. Raven had neglected to tuck in the end of the bandage when he let it go so the cloth was sliding loose, Liam put a hand up to catch it. “My contract to Pandora is linked with my contract to Lord Barma I can’t leave one without leaving the other. Besides, you’re mistaken, there’s no reason for me to want to leave Lord Barma’s service.”

Seeing Liam hold the bandage Raven realized he’d forgotten to tuck the end in and reached forward to do just that. “But he hits--”

“Raven, that was _one time_ when I stepped into the way. You’ve let your imagination get away with you.”

That didn’t seem to convince the other man, who was still frowning at him. “Liam, everyone knows, I mean, Lord Barma’s temper is common knowledge around the upper ranks of Pandora.”

He rose, brushing off Raven’s hands and shook his head. “I have no idea why you are trying to imply what you’re implying but you have it completely wrong. Lord Barma might be… erratic but that does not mean he’d cruel. And,” he turned his back on Raven’s expression of concern, “This isn’t the time for this. We have other things to worry about.”

“What do you mean?”

As he lowered his voice Liam was extremely thankful Raven had taken the bait. “Do you really think that Duke Barma is just going to let Break leave now that he knows he’s spent so much time in the Abyss? He could even try to bring the charges from when he was Kevin Regnard against him again.”

“…he can do that?”

“He can and he probably will.” Liam said grimly. “We need to get Break out of here as soon as possible. Lord Barma will want to interrogate him, most likely he’ll do it right after he wakes. There’s nothing we can do to stop that but as soon as he’s finished then you need to get him back to the Rainsworth estate, he’ll be safe from Lord Barma there.”

“What excuse are you going to give Duke Barma for coming with us?”

“I’m not.”

“What?” Raven’s voice was sharp.

Liam’s voice was as steady as he could make it. He would think about Break’s betrayal and what it meant later, right now he had to focus on keeping his master from doing something horrible to his fr-- to Break. “I’ll stay with Lord Barma. Hopefully I kind find something to distract him long enough for all of you to get out of his reach.”

“But you’ll--”

He cut Raven off with an upraised hand. “I’ll be fine. Just focus on getting Break to safety. That’s what’s important right now.”

 

\----------------------------------------------

**TBC**


	27. Chapter 27

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well, we all knew it was gonna happen. And it wasn’t going to be pretty.

**Part Two**

**Chapter Twenty-seven**

\-----------------------------------------------------------

 

Both he and Raven returned to the main theatre to find Break awake. He turned from glowering at Lord Barma to cast a frown at Liam, an unsure frown.

“Xerxes, you woke up.” he said.

“Mister Liam.” his eyes went to the bandage around his head. “You’re bandaged?”

“The wound wouldn’t stop bleeding.” he said, not letting his voice show how he felt. “I’ve warned you about overusing your power. You really…” he knelt next the Break and thrust his jacket --the one he honestly didn’t remember taking off-- up so it covered the rip in Break’s jacket again. 

“Don’t make others worry.” He couldn’t even look at him, could barely manage those few words before retreating to the background.

The priority was to get Break out of the malevolent hands of Duke Barma. Everything else, no matter how important or personal, had to come later.

In the meantime thing progressed rather as Liam had expected, Lord Barma demanded information from Break and the other man slipped on his coat over his own ripped one and settled in to calmly tell them how he had seen a young Vincent Nightray carry Raven into the presence of the Will of the Abyss.

There was something so inherently _Break_ about the way he told the story that Liam knew he was editing out pieces. That made sense, he was trading information for information with Lord Barma, and it wouldn’t do to give too much. But the idea of Break withholding things was not as innocent as it had been back before he knew there was an illegal contractor's seal on his chest, now Liam was more suspicious of what Break notably didn’t tell them.

By the time Lord Barma revealed what he knew, how according to the diary of Jack Vessalius B-Rabbit and the Will of the Abyss were twins, Liam had taken his glasses off so he wouldn’t have to keep suppressing the urge to look over and see what the expression on Break’s face was. Things after that started to go sour as he had feared as Lord Barma played the cards he had been keeping to himself this whole time, stating his intention to keep not only B-Rabbit but Break also for ‘further investigations’. He threatened to persecute Break for his past crimes, just as Liam had predicted.

But before either he or Raven had made a move Lord Oz stepped between Lord Barma and Break, threatening to use his considerable political sway against Lord Barma. The move was so surprising and so perfect that Liam had to shove his glasses back on to glance at Raven --who shook his head no at the unasked question-- to make sure the other man hadn’t pulled Lord Oz aside for a moment to explain things.

All the same, Lord Barma hated being challenged almost as much as he hated unexpected changes and his temper snapped at the sight of the young Vessalius lord challenging him so openly. Raven made a choked noise and threw himself forward, seeing Lord Barma’s arm raise, Liam winced internally, knowing that his master fully intended to follow through with the blow.

And then Lady Cheryl’s metal fan had crashed into the pillar between them, effectively diffusing the situation. Lord Barma’s power over the situation was gone as soon as Break told Lady Cheryl how the Duke had made an illusion of her --she truly hated when he did that. They used the distraction of to hustle Break out of the theatre and into the waiting carriage.

As Liam turned to go back into the theatre Raven caught his arm. “You shouldn’t go back in there.”

“I can take care of myself, Raven.”

“But if he…” Raven winced at the thought, “He could kill you.”

“He can’t afford the questions that would raise. Whatever else I can take.” He glanced over Raven’s shoulder and saw that Break was too busy talking to Lord Oz and B-Rabbit by the carriage to notice what that Raven wasn’t with them. “Keep Break from coming back.” Liam said. He shook off Raven’s hand and slipped back into the theatre before the other man could react.

Going back to where he had left Lady Cheryl severely chastising Lord Barma Liam found that she was apparently satisfied enough with his apologetic state to stop hitting him with her fan.

“Ah, Mister Liam,” Lady Cheryl greeted his return with a gracious nod. “My carriage wouldn’t happen to still be out front, would it?”

“No, Lady Cheryl.” he replied. That was mostly because Lord Oz and the others had taken it in their hurry to leave. “But I can call for it to be readied if you wish.”

“Do that.” she said, “I heard there was this lovely play tonight but it seems,” she gave a pointed glance around the empty theatre, “That I was mistaken.”

He was only too glad to be given a task that would further postpone his getting near Lord Barma and left to summon the carriage the others had taken, which was a Rainsworth carriage as well, that was the reason the others had had no qualms about taking Lady Cheryl’s.

It was only when Lady Cheryl’s manservant had finished helping her into the carriage that things soured further. She put a hand out to stop Liam from closing the carriage door and said, “By the way, Mister Liam, my granddaughter was just commenting that it has been far too long sense you came to stay at my estate. She misses you. Will you let me borrow him for a bit, Ruf?”

“I’m afraid I can’t.” Lord Barma said; his smile just a little too thin. “Liam’s quite behind in his work. Frankly I can’t afford to give him any time off at the moment.”

“Such a shame.” Lady Cheryl tittered. “Ah, well, another time perhaps.”

Liam swung the door shut, taking the opportunity to give Lady Cheryl a grateful look at her attempt. She gave him a smile and a quick wink before departing.

That left just the two of them standing on the street. Alone.

“Call my carriage and inform me when it is ready.” Lord Barma finally said before he turned on his heel to go back into the theatre.

Distinctly Liam heard the muttered, “Useless.”

 

\----------------------------------------------

 

 

Several hours later Liam closed the door behind them as they entered the Barma estate. He could feel Lord Barma’s eyes burning a whole in his back.

“Lord Barma, let me exp--” he started as he turned but he had turned right into the first blow.

The first of many.

 

\----------------------------------------------

**TBC**


	28. Chapter 28

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> End of part two! Part three coming soon.

**Part Two**   
****

**Chapter Twenty-eight**

\------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

On returning to the Rainsworth household Break had fallen right into bed, exhausted by power overuse and the stresses of the day. It was only late the next day that he woke, he was just in time to throw clothes on and make it to afternoon tea.

As he had left his room he’d noticed that Liam’s coat was on the floor with the rest of the clothes from the Barma visit he’d tossed off. He fished it out and folded it over his arm. If Liam didn’t make it completely impossible he’d give it back to him over tea.

No one seemed to have expected him to actually make it to tea, Sharon had to ring for a servant to bring an extra setting and chair when he arrived. It was only after Break settled into his place that he had the opportunity to scan the table. There were all the usual that he’d expected, Sharon, Oz, Gil, and Alice, though the fact that Oscar had come to visit was a bit of a surprise. But he did not see that one person he needed very badly to see.

They were all watching him, all waiting for him to say something.

“Where is Liam?” he asked.

All around the table there was a sudden outbreak of eye avoidance and feverous fiddling with things on the table.

Eventually Sharon sighed and said, “He’s with Lord Barma, at the Barma estate.”

He frowned. “But he came back with…” and then he played the last night’s conclusion back in his head only to realize that he was wrong. That Liam had not left the theatre with them.

When he rose from the table Gil, of all people, reached out to shove him back down into his chair. He looked surprised at how easy it was.

“You aren’t going to the Barma estate.” Oscar said flatly.

Break glared at him. “Do you have any idea what is going to happen to him?”

“No,” Oz interjected. “And if someone could fill me in I’d appreciate it.”

“I don’t know either.” Alice said.

Ignoring them Break continued to glare at Oscar. “I am not going to leave him there.”

Gil had kept his hand on his shoulder and shoved again as Break tried to rise for a second time. “He told me to make sure you didn’t go.”

“He’s a self sacrificing idiot.” Break snapped.

“Think for a moment,” Oscar said, “If it was possible to just to storm in there and drag him back to safety would we just be sitting here?”

After a moments thought Break sighed and relaxed back into his chair. He reached out and claimed a cake for his own. “I dislike this.” he said, what was an understatement for quite how badly he was feeling at that very moment. He hadn’t even noticed Liam wasn’t there…

“What’s going on?” Oz demanded. “Is Mister Liam in trouble?”

There were looks around the table before Break said succinctly, his voice low with restrained anger, “Yes.”

 

\----------------------------------------------

 

Lord Barma stared at the small, bloody smear on the floor of the entryway and the earring that lay in the middle of it. He sometimes admitted that he had a rather overactive temper that snapped far too quickly. This was one of those times.

It was true that his servant had betrayed him but it was not as if he hadn’t known that he had been loosing the loyalty of Liam for some time. It should not have come as the surprise it had been when the man had intervened on Xerxes Break’s account.

He was the March Hare’s after all, no matter how much they had tried to keep the two apart, the power of the Chains had still called the two together. Perhaps all the work he had done to keep them apart was to be in vain.

If that was the case then he had truly failed in his effort to keep the boy alive. If Hare and Hatter came together Liam would die soon after. 

 

\----------------------------------------------

 

Slumping down onto the floor was easier than making his way to the bed; those were three extra steps Liam didn’t think he could manage. Everything ached.

That was only to be expected after what had happened. Never before had he seen Lord Barma quite as angry as he had been before. Usually his Lord had more sense than to strike his face --facial bruises on one’s servants were hard to explain away-- but he must have been truly furious that he’d defied a direct order to protect Break. Or just angry enough to forget that one rule.

Hopefully there would be nothing else required of him tonight, he’d barely been able to drag himself off the floor when Lord Barma, apparently disgusted, had turned his back on him and dismissed him with the flick of a hand. 

He’d gone to the kitchens first, staggering, propping himself up with the wall most of the way, driven more by habit than by reason. There was safety in the kitchens, people who would help and he that was what he needed at that very moment --his head was still ringing from impact with the ground and the arm he wasn’t using to prop himself dangled limply. It didn’t feel broken, but when he’d fallen (the first time) he’d hit it strangely on the floor catching himself and it had gone numb after that.

There would be Agathea and Catherine in the kitchen.

Expect that there wasn’t.

Dimly he remembered, leaning against the doorframe of the kitchen, that this was the one week of the year that both women had leave to visit their families in the country. The woman in the kitchen had babbled at him in a startled way, she was probably a cousin or niece of Agathea who usually asked one to come in to mind the household while the housekeeper was away. He even though he’d met the woman before he couldn’t be exactly sure his assumption was right, his glasses were somewhere on the floor in the hall since he’d been in too much of a hurry to get away to locate them so the woman’s face was a fleshy blur.

She might have been able to do something, but from her shrieks of panic it seemed unlikely. With him standing there bruised and bloody it was understandable but at that very moment panicking was completely unhelpful. He’d turned on his heel without even saying a word to her and dragged himself through the mansion to where his room was.

Now that he was on the floor it was strangely comfortable, the coolness of the floorboards felt pleasant against his throbbing head. The cold almost made the stinging of his earlobe go away. When he reached up to touch it he found his ear and that side of his neck was bloody, he had a dim memory of putting a hand on the floor to push himself back up and feeling the metal of the ring of one of his earrings under it as he sat up. He must have ripped it out of his ear in his hurry to get away. That certainly explained the pain.

Maybe he had hit his head harder than he’d originally thought. Lying here until he could think clearly was a good plan.

“You really are an utter fool.”

No other voice, at that very moment, could have made him sit up faster. For a moment his head spun but when the world settled back down he frowned toward the window, where the voice had come from. There was a person sitting on the windowsill. One with white hair.

“…Break?” he asked cautiously. “No, surely not even you would be stupid enough to come here.” But how many other people did he know that would be sitting on his windowsill?

“Of course I came to visit you,” Was that Break smiling? It was hard to tell. “You are, after all, a dear friend.”

That was odd, with the exception of the one time with Lord Oz Break wasn’t given to proclamations of friendship. “I’m not your friend. And how did you get in here?”

Break waved a dismissive hand. “Details, details. That’s hardly important. What is important is what you did for me. You shouldn’t have disobeyed your master, not for me.”

“I know. I shouldn’t have.” he said,.

“Ah, but had you known what I didn’t tell you, would you still have defended me?” Break asked and his tone was somehow too intent, too expectant.

Wishing for his glasses Liam leaned forward to get a better look at Break. Why was he so blurry? Contractors weren’t supposed to be blurry to him. “Why do want to know? I mean, it’s over, there’s nothing I could do to change it even if I wanted to.”

“Oh, so you would want to?” Break pressed. “If you’d known what I truly was you would have never gone against your Lord?”

“Did you really go to all the trouble of sneaking in here to ask me that? What’s the point?”

“Well, to know, of course!” Break swung his feet back and forth like a child, tapping his heels against the wall that held the window and, knowing Break, probably leaving marks on the wall from his boots. Then he added, “Information is the key to everything!”

That was odd, it barely sounded like Break at all. In fact-- Liam glared at the man sitting on his windowsill. “You’re an illusion, aren’t you?”

In answer Break smirked, “You shouldn’t have saved me.” Then he threw back his head and laughed, loud and raucous and insane, dissolving down to dust in seconds. The sound of his --its-- laughter lingered in the air long after the illusion was gone.

Liam slumped back to the floor, suddenly aching all the more. He lay there, one the floor, with one arm over his eyes, for some time.

Alone.

Except for the whispering… the faint whispering, that came from somewhere far off and yet felt very, very familiar.

 

\----------------------------------------------

 

_“I… want…”_

 

“Who is that?”

 

_“Ha…”_

 

“Hello?”

 

\----------------------------------------------

**TBC**

**End of Part Two**


	29. Chapter 29

**Part Three**

**Chapter Twenty-nine**

\------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

It was three days before Liam returned to Pandora from the Barma estate.

He was glad to have gotten away that quickly, he strongly suspected Lord Barma would have had him stay away from Pandora even longer if he could have justified it. The Duke appeared to be in one of his vindictive moods and if it wasn’t for the paperwork surely piling up on Liam’s desk he probably wouldn’t have let him leave for at least a week. And that was a week longer than Liam wanted to spend in the Barma household at the moment.

It was a sad day when he was actually grateful for the fact that his desk was overflowing with work in his absence.

Lord Barma had been acting strange since the trip to the theatre, which was only to be expected considering what had happened there, however his constant watching was making Liam distinctly nervous. He wasn’t sure what he was watching for signs of, perhaps more betrayal?, and it was hard to carefully alphabetize your master’s books for the hundredth time with said master burning a hole between your shoulder blades with the intensity of his stare.

At least he wasn’t angry anymore, Liam was still healing from that last bit of temper, and had no wish to weather another episode. He was lucky as it was, his arm had only been thrown out of joint and if he’d hit his head hard enough to give himself a concussion it hadn’t been a bad one --the nausea and the sudden moments of dizziness had almost completely gone away by now.

Still, his hands, under his gloves, were a stiff, aching, bruised, bloody mess. They looked so bad it would be a while before he dared take his gloves off, even in private.

It was fortunate that he still had some of that covering mixture from the old days, when he’d been much younger and Barma had been much less careful about where he aimed, that should cover up most of the bruises that were worryingly visible.

He was a little apprehensive about the one on the back of his neck, it was hard for him to tell exactly how far back it went and even with the high collar of his Pandora uniform his hair was too short to cover it up.

With the rather herbal smelling covering mixture over the bruises, his gloves securely in place, and his glasses retrieved --actually, he’d found them in a case on his pillow one morning (and the cracked lens had been replaced)-- he returned to Pandora looking, outwardly, none the worse for the days away.

He almost got away with it too.

 

\----------------------------------------------

 

A hand shot out from a side room, grabbed his arm, and towed Liam out of the hall. Lord Oz turned out to be attached to the hand and he was smiling.

It took Liam a moment to realize that this was the real one, over the three days he’d been at the Barma estate several of Lord Ozes had grabbed by the arm to smile at him, quite a few Lady Sharons had chuckled at him from across the room, and _dozens_ of Break had caught him at inconvenient times and pressed much closer than he liked with their whispered threats. Even if Lord Barma himself had restrained himself to only staring, he’d sent out his illusions to make Liam remember that he did not take betrayal lightly.

It had been unsettling, to say the least.

But this was definitely the real Lord Oz, he’d become quite good at telling the difference.

“I’ve got something for you,” he said, “Alice!” he called over his shoulder.

B-Rabbit hurried up and handed him something small, wrapped in a handkerchief. When Lord Oz handed it to him Liam was surprised to find the bundle cold to the touch, he unwrapped the handkerchief to find a lump of ice was the reason for this --no doubt it was purloined from the kitchen.

“It’s sort of from Break.” Lord Oz explained, “He distracted the kitchen staff so we could sneak in and get it; plus it was his idea in the first place.” He looked satisfied. “It’s a good thing you came by, it was starting to melt.”

“Break wanted you to give me… ice?” Liam frowned, he wasn’t good at subtle, was he? 

“For your hands,” Lord Oz said, his smile dropping. “Cause Break said they’d be hurting. He was really upset, you know, when he realized you didn’t come back with us.”

“Was he.” his tone made it a statement, not a question, and a flat one at that.

“He was,” said Lord Oz, seemingly undeterred. “I don’t think I’ve ever seen him that angry.”

Liam rewrapped the ice --which actually did feel rather nice in his stiff fingers but he was ignoring that-- in the handkerchief he knew was Break’s because it had melted candy stains on it and said. “I have work I need to attend to, Lord Oz.” But when he turned to the door B-Rabbit was leaning against it, her arms crossed. He froze, her claims of non-violence aside he still did not wanting to get near her.

“You should talk to Break.” Lord Oz said from behind him. “He’d be here giving that ice to you but he said you won’t stay here if he was. It’s hard to apologize to someone who keeps avoiding you.”

He turned back and had to work not to glower at the young Lord, since one didn’t glare at nobility if they liked their position and wanted to keep it for much longer. “You are assuming, Lord Oz,” he said, voice controlled so there was no trace of anger in it, “That I want an apology.”

Lord Oz blinked at him. “But you two are friends.” he protested. “Of course you’re going to make up. I mean, he lied, yes, but he lied to all of us,” Lord Oz’s gesture took indicated both himself and B-Rabbit, “And we’ve forgiven him. I know you’re his best friend but if he really is sorry then you should at least listen to him.”

A extremely polite but cold reply was on Liam’s tongue for a moment before he bit it back. Just because Lord Oz was part of Break’s machinations didn’t mean that he could be blamed for Break’s deceits. “It’s a bit more complex than that, Lord Oz.” he said.

“No, it isn’t.” B-Rabbit said from the door. When they both turned to look at her she shrugged. “You and the clown talk, he’s cough up a sorry, and then everything will go back to normal. That’s how it worked for us.”

“Exactly, Alice.” Lord Oz said. And, with another smile, he went to her, “It’s really that simple.” He extended the smile back at Liam for a moment left with the Chain.

Liam stood there, ice in hand, a little baffled at the entire encounter. How exactly was he supposed to wave aside what Break had done? And why should he be expected to? With a shake of his head he cupped the shard of ice in his aching hands and tried not to hear that whispering little voice that refused to go away.

It was just a whisper, right at the back of his mind at odd moments like this when he was alone.

 

_“Where is…”_

 

“Who is that?”

 

_“My Ha…”_

 

\----------------------------------------------

**TBC**


	30. Chapter 30

**Part Three**

**Chapter Thirty**

\------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

_“Have you heard?”_

 

_“Yes, have you heard?”_

 

_“No, what has happened?”_

 

_“The Vessalius boy is ill again.”_

 

_“His incurse?_

 

_“Perhaps.”_

 

As the murmurs went around the table Barma, out of notice since he was acting as Lady Cheryl’s attendant, held the earring up so it caught the light. He took in the small ring, the tiny runes sewn into the ribbon just has he had when he’d first seen it. This should have been in a certain man’s ear, not here with him. It should have been protecting the one it was made to keep safe, as it had done for most of his life, and it wasn’t.

 

_“Lord Barma, you are very quiet today.”_

 

_“Yes, very quiet.”_

 

_“What have you to say about this matter?”_

 

He’d let himself get so distracted he had neglected to give his illusion any instructions so it had fallen still and silent. Barma sighed and tucked the earring away, sending his illusion back into animation with a flicker of power. _“No good to speculate. Just ask Raven what ills him and get it over with.”_

 

_“You seem a mite distracted today, Ruf.”_ The comment had come from Lady Cheryl and though she looked toward the illusion the way she was sitting indicated she was listening very carefully for any reaction from him. _“Is it something to do with Hare and Hatter?”_

 

_“Yes. It has come to my attention that the binding on Hare has loosened.”_

 

_“_ What? _”_

 

_“You can’t possibly mean--”_

 

_“Then we need to separate him from Xerxes Break immediately!”_

 

_“But doing so will arouse suspicion.”_ murmured Lady Cheryl. _“And we have long strived to keep both ignorant of their connection.”_

 

_“And aside from that,”_ the illusion spoke up at Barma’s prompting, _“due to the nature of the binding, the loosening will only be temporary. A few more days at most.”_ That was why Barma had not simply returned the earring, he remembered that it had been ripped from it’s ear and the flesh wouldn’t be healed enough to hold this for a bit. 

 

_“But if Xerxes Break comes near him…”_

 

_“Then we will have to hope a loosened binding holds well enough to keep him safe, won’t we?”_

 

_“Yes.”_

 

_“Yes, I suppose.”_

 

_“But what if it isn’t?”_

 

_“Then there’s nothing we can do.”_

 

_“You’re right. Unfortunately.”_

 

\----------------------------------------------

 

The fact that Liam was in his office was no great surprise but considering recent events it was surprising that Break had just walked into the room and was hovering uncertainty just inside the door.

Liam didn’t even look up from his work; he knew who it was without even seeing him. He made a gesture for Break to come in, then waved vaguely at the door in an indication he should close it. Only after Break closed the door did Liam put his pen down and look up. “Well?” he demanded. “What do you want?”

From the way the Break winced he hadn’t expected Liam to be so direct about his anger. “The last time we spoke,” he leaned against the door, looking oddly uncomfortable and out of place without a candy in his hands to fiddle with, “You indicated that if I lied to you again you would end our friendship. So… I would like to know. Where do we stand now?”

Liam sighed and reached up to rub his palm against his temple, wiping off the covering mixture, and then drew a line down his right cheek, showing the bruised skin that hid underneath. Then he tugged both his gloves off. Setting them to the side he laid his hands flat on the desk in front of him, letting the cut and bruises skin speak for themselves.

Once they were there Break didn’t seem to be able to keep his eyes off them, he even crept forward to stare at them more closely. There was something Liam couldn’t read in his eyes --what was it, horror? rage?-- and his hands were clenched white on his uniform coat.

“Where do you _think_ we stand?” Liam said quietly.

“You were never supposed to be hurt.” Break said. “That was the one rule I kept. The only rule I never broke…”

And the anger Liam had been keeping control of fairly well up to this point broke through and he snapped, “What did you think I was going to be when I found out what you were? Amused? Baffled? Of course I was hurt!” He saw it in the flicker in Break’s eyes just then and his own hands clenched into fists on the desktop. “You were never going to tell me.” Break winced but didn’t deny it and Liam stared at him aghast for several seconds, struck for a second time by the depth to which the betrayal ran. “You were _never_ going to tell me. How dare you keep that kind of secret from me, Xerxes Break, I’m your _best friend_. At least, I _was_ your best friend.”

“Ah, that’s just it,” Break’s light tone was as forced as his smile. “You hardly want to associated with a former illegal contractor. You would have never offered me friendship in the first place had you known.”

Reaching across the desk Liam smacked his knuckles against Break’s forehead. Hard. “You _idiot_.” As Break winced and reached a hand up to shield his forehead Liam snapped, “I’m angry because you lied to me, _again_ , about something important. If you would have just told me I wouldn’t be half as furious as I am at the moment!”

“You would still be angry.”

“Well, we’ll never know for sure, will we!” he snarled. “Because you had to go and be all secretive and protective and not tell me.”

“Don’t.” Break’s eye darted away from his face, down to the floor. One of his hands crept up to touch the back of Liam’s hand, as if not believing the bruise he touched was real. His fingers skimmed over the swollen cuts, his touch to light for it to be painful, until his own pale hand covered Liam’s. “I never intended things to be like this.” he said softly. “I truly am sor--”

They both froze in the same instant. Liam didn’t know if Break was feeling the same thing but in that very moment he felt like static had crackled between their hands with painful intensity. He tried to yank his hand from under Break’s and found, to his horror, the he couldn’t get it to move.

From the way the muscles stood out on the back of Break’s hand he was trying the same thing and having no luck either.

 

_“Hatter? My Hatter!”_

 

This was no vague whisper at the back of his mind, this was a shout, a demand from something that he had long forgotten he had.

 

_“So familiar. So very…_ familiar _.”_

 

The rumbling voice came from Break’s direction and though he hadn’t heard it in some time Liam remembered the Mad Hatter’s voice anywhere.

That was when he was distracted from his stuck hand by his earring, which suddenly burned white-hot against his cheek. As soon as he noticed the heat and started to worry about it burning him he was able to move his hand. He snatched it back, his fingers were pins and needles all over and there was _no reason_ for that to be.

Looking up he met Break’s equally astonished look. “What… what was that?”

He shouldn’t be near Break. Liam couldn’t have said exactly why he knew that at this very instant but he knew it with such certainty in that moment that he backed right into his chair, stumbling and sending it to the floor.

“Liam?” Break started. “Are you--”

“Get out!” he couldn’t have said, later, why he was shouting. He just had this terrible feeling that he needed to get away from the man in front of him. He pointed a shaking finger at the door. “I’m done arguing with you. I’m done even looking at you! Go on,Xerxes Break, _get out!”_

Break looked genuinely shocked for a moment, then he turned and walked away.

“And give me back my coat!” Liam shouted after him. The only response he got was the door slamming.

 

\----------------------------------------------

 

As Break came out in the hall Oz, Sharon, Alice, and Gilbert were rather suddenly looking like they had so much to do and they weren’t possibly lurking by the door to eavesdrop. It was Sharon who gave up the pretense first, giving Break a frown. “I take it it didn’t go well.”

“How do you know that?” Break asked in a tone of forced lightness.

“You left through the _door_ , Xerxes.” Sharon delicately pointed out.

“Did I?” Break glanced behind him and seemed surprised. “Why, so I did.”

That seemed to give the others permission to approach, each eyeing Break with the same curiosity. It was Alice who actually came out and said it, her hands planted on her hips, “Well, did you two make up or what, clown?”

A candy was suddenly in Break’s hand, he presented it to Alice with a flourish and something close to his normal smirk. “Now what do you think, you silly rabbit? I’m sure all of you just happened to be close enough to hear all that shouting. Draw your own conclusion.”

She swiped the candy from his hand with a scowl. “Well, if I’m not going to see make ups there’s point in hanging around, come on Oz! Let’s go find some meat.” Grabbing Oz’s arm she towed him away, with Oz giving a wave back at them as he was all but dragged.

For a moment Gilbert clearly debated the wisdom of staying before he gave Sharon and Break a nod and followed after his master. Which left Sharon to take Break’s hand in her small ones.

“You’re shaking.” she murmured.

“He says he wants his coat back.” he replied.

She patted the back of his hand, not at all thrown off by the seemingly random reply. Not long after the group had come back from their visit to Barma Break had taken her aside and told the story of the man-who-was, Kevin Regnard. It had made all the bits and pieces that she’d known about him come together into a coherent whole. She’d been angry, had felt betrayed, but she understood and could now put it behind her. “Well, it’s probably only the coat he has that isn’t part of a Pandora uniform.”

“That didn’t go how I expected it to.” Break said quietly.

Squeezing his hand she gave him a smile. “Only you would’ve thought it would be so easy. He’s just… angry.”

“Oh, that I noticed.”

“And he feels betrayed.”

Break went still, the smiling falling from his face. “That… that I can’t deny is justified.”

“These things need time.” she said gently. “Leave him alone for now. Go with the others, I’m sure Alice will have found something to eat by now and it’s almost dinnertime anyway. I’ll talk to him.”

“I don’t think now is… a good time.”

She saw the way his eye flicked to the side and asked, “What happened?”

“I’m not sure.” he admitted. “Something happened with Hatter.” Frowning he rubbed his hand and lowered his voice. “And Liam’s Chain too.”

“Then I should check on him.” she said firmly. She gave his hand one last squeeze and then let go. “The three of us have been friends for so long, we need each other when things get difficult. He’ll come around eventually.”

He didn’t reply, only giving her a forlorn smile before trotting off after the others.

Sharon watched him leave and then sighed, smoothing her skirts. He was her friend, she had to make sure he was alright. And _\--she remembered a gap toothed smile, a tattered coat swirling through the air--_ if what she was starting to suspect could be possible.

 

\----------------------------------------------

**TBC**


	31. Chapter 31

**Part Three**

**Chapter Thirty-one**

\------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

When Sharon entered Liam’s office she found him at his desk, buried in his work, pen busily scratching away at the paper. Xerxes Break dealt with being upset by being silly, Liam Lunettes dealt with it by burying himself in his work. She closed the door with a loud click behind her but he didn’t look up from what he was working on, even though she could see that he was blotting the paper he was writing on terribly.

“Liam.” she said. “You do realize Xerxes is an idiot.”

“I know that.” he said shortly.

“Then why are you angry with him?” she asked.

That made him glance up finally and she gasped when she saw his face. Before he could reply she was striding across the room to reach across the desk, put her hand under his chin and raise his head more so she could better see his face. The bruise on his temple --where there was also a red wound--stood out sharply against his skin and she could see on his cheek where a clean line had been drawn through some sort of cover-up to show that there was another bruise under it.

“Are you alright?” she asked, one hand going up to carefully touch the wound on the side of his head. In this question she was really asking a myriad of things, “Did your Master hurt you worse than before?”, “Are you going to be alright?”, and “Are you going to be alright after arguing with Xerxes?”.

His eyes did not meet hers but he when he said, “Yes.” but his voice said that he was lying.

Letting go of his chin she glanced down at his hands, wincing to see the condition they were in. “I was outside and I… heard you shouting.”

It was his turn to wince. “I’m afraid I lost my temper.” he noticed where she was looking and set his pen down so he could withdraw his hands, hiding them by setting them in his lap.

“So I heard.” she said dryly. “And you must know he wouldn’t have lied to you if he wasn’t afraid. You’re his friend, his _only_ friend. If you’d known--” she raised her eyebrows meaningfully.

“I know.” he said wearily. “But that doesn’t change the fact that he lied to me, even if it does explain why he did it.”

She sighed, perching on the edge of his desk. Liam always kept one corner of his desk marginally clean of things because Break liked to sit on it and wasn’t above messing up Liam’s piles to make a place for himself. “You’re going to forgive him.” her tone did not make it a question, just a statement.

He raised a bruised hand so he could drop his head into it. “Yes.” he said tiredly. “Eventually. I was going to do it now but…”

“Something went wrong?” she pressed gently.

“You could put it that way.” he said.

“I spoke with Xerxes.” she said, normally she wouldn’t tell him that but this had gone on too long with her saying nothing. “What happened with your Chain and his?”

“I don’t have a Chain.” He said at once, but it sounded like a rehearsed answer.

“Who ordered you to say that?” Sharon returned, not backing down in the slightest.

For a long moment he froze, head still resting in the palm of his hand and she held her breath, waiting for the moment to break. Finally he stood, grabbing his gloves and he moved away from her, toward the window. “I think you’re mistaken Lady Sharon. I do not have a Chain.”

“You never call me Miss Sharon anymore.” she said softly. “When we were little you called me that all the time. But now… you never do.”

She could see his shoulders tense from where she sat. “We grew up.” he said. “And apart. You and Break went all secretive and decided not to include me.”

“I actually suggested that we do, for what its worth.” she folded her hands neatly in her lap, pretending not to notice how much trouble Liam was having getting his glove on. Probably something to do with stiff fingers and how his hands seemed to be shaking. “But Break went all protective on me and refused. But that’s neither here nor there. I want to know what happened that had Xerxes leaving your office looking like he just saw a ghost.”

“I don’t know.”

“Honestly.”

“Yes.”

“Then tell me about it, let me help you.” she said gently. “You’re obviously upset about it. Let me help.”

“With all due respect,” he finally managed one glove and started on the other. “I can handle this on my--” he broke off to put hand to his head as if it hurt him. The movement made Sharon notice something and she slid off the desk to approach him.

“Liam,” she said slowly, “Could you turn around for a second?”

With an expression that indicated he was a little baffled at the sudden turn in conversation he did so.

She hadn’t been sure with his back turned to her but now that he was facing her it was clear. There was a frown on her face as she asked, “Do you know you only have one earring in?”

His hand rose to touch his ear and he looked quite surprised when he didn’t find an earring in it. “That’s odd, I could have sworn… oh,” he winced. “It um, got caught on something and was pulled out. It will be a little before my ear heals enough to wear the other again.”

The way he said it made her rather suspicious on the exact manner in which it had gotten ‘pulled out’ but she didn’t press him on that because she didn’t need to be told what she already knew. “Then why are you wearing the other? It’s a bit silly to only wear one earring.”

“To tell you the truth I don’t know why.” he reached up for the earring. “I must have just left it in out of habit. Still, it is ridiculous to only wear the one.” And then he dropped the glove that he had never managed to put on as his bare fingers touched the single earring. In fact, he just froze, going absolutely still.

“Liam?” Sharon asked, a little tinge of worry in her voice.

He unfroze, his hand dropping from the earring. “Yes, Lady Sharon?” There was absolutely no sign of the frown that had been on his face only moment before and his voice showed nothing of being upset.

She stared at him in horror, what she had just seen… could it possibly be? Had she just seen…

“Is something wrong?” he asked. His expression was concerned and the concern was for her, not for anything else. “Was there something else you wanted to talk to me about?”

Sharon could feel the blood draining from her face as she fully comprehended what had just happened. And it made her sick. “N-no.” she managed. “It’s nothing. You just… dropped your glove, that’s all.”

Glancing down Liam appeared to see it for the first time and reached down to scoop it up. “That’s odd, I don’t remember doing that. How strange.”

That was it, she couldn’t take it anymore. She quickly excused herself and almost ran back to her Pandora rooms so she could be sick in private, where no one would see.

 

\----------------------------------------------

 

Vincent watched with interest as Sharon Rainsworth dashed by him. She was quite pale and seemed so determined to get somewhere she didn’t notice passing him at all. He raised an eyebrow at her retreating back and then filed the incident away under ‘interesting’ before continuing on his way.

 

\----------------------------------------------

 

In another part of the Pandora Headquarters Break had left Alice, Gilbert, and Oz for the solitude of his own rooms. He was currently curled up on the wide window sill, frowning down at the view beyond the glass as if it wasn’t seeing at all. In fact he was listening to the voice of Hatter in his head, which was whispering the same couple of phrases over and over.

 

_“So familiar. So very familiar. He is_ so _familiar.”_

 

\----------------------------------------------

**TBC**


	32. Chapter 32

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It’s harder to mend a friendship than it is to break one. Dammit Break, Liam, stop sulking so the plot can move on!

**Part Three**

**Chapter Thirty-two**

\------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

It was some hours after she spoke to Liam that she went to see Break, it had taken Sharon that long to gain enough control that she didn’t want to be sick every time she thought of what she had just found out. The idea that her oldest friend was under some sort of spell… well she’d always known his glasses held some sort of power, but she never thought he would be controlled to such an extent that he would _forget what he was doing._ The very thought had actually made her physically sick with its shear repulsiveness. How long had this been going on? How long had she simply not known?

By the time she was settling herself into the armchair in Break’ s room she’d calmed herself enough to think a bit and realize that she needed to speak to him before she did anything else. Between the two of them they would something to do, they always did.

“Something on your mind, Milady?”

She actually jumped a bit, she had been so caught up her thoughts she had forgotten she was already in Break’s rooms. “Yes, actually. Quite a bit.”

From his place on the windowsill he raised an inquisitive eyebrow at her. “Then by all means, tell me and lighten the load.”

“I just spoke with Liam…” she started and then trailed off, not quite sure how to describe what she had seen happen. Finally she just said it in bare simplicity. “When I pointed out to him that he was only wearing one earring he went to take it off. And…” her hands in her lap trembled.

“What is it?” Break asked.

“As soon as he touched the earring he forgot what he was doing. I know it sounds ridiculous but I saw it with my own eyes.”

That made him sit up straighter and tap his chin in thought. “I had noticed he was only wearing the one these past few days. Well, well, if he was under some sort of spell it would be quite useless if he simply took the things off.”

“So you think that they’re some sort of sorcery?” She’d thought something similar but she wanted to see if his thoughts echoed hers.

“I think it’s the only thing they could be. I can’t really guess the exact reason, though it’s probably something to do with his Chain, with some kind of minor inducement not to take them off and break its hold on top of that.”

She nodded. “Those were my thoughts too. Although it occurs to me that when I was younger I very clearly recall him not having them.”

“I can’t say I remember when he starting wearing them. Do you remember?”

“Yes, actually, I do. It was right after you made your contract with Mad Hatter. I remember commenting on them to Liam and his saying they were from Lord Barma. Do you think that your own Chain has something to do with this?” 

“It’s possible.” Break mused. “But we don’t really know anything about Liam’s Chain --beyond the fact that Mad Hatter finds it familiar.”

Sharon frowned at him. “It does?”

“So he keeps telling me.” Break rubbed his forehead. “At great length.”

“I think that Liam’s Chain is the March Hare.” Sharon said. “I saw it once when we were young, he used it accidentally to pull us out of harm’s way. There’s really no other Chain that could have been, March Hare is rather distinctive. And it grants him the power to see Chains clearly, even when they’re in other contractors.” She’s very sure of this, having seen how Liam acted without his glasses. “But the glasses he wears cut that ability.”

“I suspected as much.” Break said, which would be one reason Break never stole his glasses. “Well, if we know what Chain he has we can always research it to find out why they react to each other.”

But Sharon shook her head to that suggestion. “Liam’s been looking for information on the March Hare for years. He told me once that he suspected that the Pandora records have been censored, that any information on or account of the Hare had been removed. You know what that means.”

Break sighed. “Barma. _Damn_ that man.”

“You could always ask him to tell you.” she suggested sweetly.

“I don’t like his exchange rate.” Break replied. “He got much more from me than I from him when we last met. And I wouldn’t want to bring further trouble down on Liam, I’m sure his master would be most displeased if I revealed I was nosing about in the matter of his Chain.”

“Why would you think that?”

“Anyone who has gone through such trouble to keep things secret --those earrings, altering records, telling Liam to pretend he doesn’t have a Chain-- well, the obviously they are hiding something important.”

“That’s true. This is clearly something it would not be a good idea to rush into.” She smiled at Break, “How would _you_ approach this?”

He drew up a knee so he could prop his chin on it and return her smile. “At the moment, I wouldn’t approach it at all. I think now would be a bad time to push Liam, especially since my Chain and his seem to react to each other. Perhaps it would be best to wait until that other earring it back in to inquire further.”

“And you want to mend your friendship first.” she added for him when neglected to mention what she knew he was thinking.

“I am rather skeptical about the feasibility of that.”

“Now, now.” she waved a hand at him. “You’re Xerxes Break and he’s Liam Lunettes. You’re friends whether you wish to be or not. Even if you don’t approach him to apologize he will.”

“I’m not so sure of that.” Break said glumly.

Reaching out Sharon gave him a pat on the head. “Trust me, I know these things.”

 

\----------------------------------------------

 

In fact it was the very next day that Liam sought out Break. He found him on a balcony, sitting at a little table that was set for tea.

The look Break shot him over the rim of his teacup was trying for casual but falling just a little short. “Going to have another shout?”

“No.” Liam took the other chair and wasn’t much surprised to find that there was a spare teacup. Either the Pandora servants had assumed where Xerxes Break was taking tea at least one guest was to be expected or Break had been waiting for Sharon. The latter was less likely though since today Sharon was taking tea with her grandmother and so he didn’t feel bad about taking the remaining teacup for his own. “I came to apologize for that. I… somewhat overreacted.”

Break set his teacup down with a smile. “I don’t think it was uncalled for considering the circumstances. And the occurrence with the Chains.”

“Hmm.” said Liam, pouring himself some tea and pretending he didn’t catch the reference to the Chain he officially wasn’t supposed to have. “I don’t suppose you would have my coat?”

“You’re leaning on it.” Break said.

Turning around Liam saw that he was, the coat had been draped over the back of his chair. He hadn’t noticed it when he sat.

“It’s been cleaned.” Taking a knife Break cut himself a generous slice of cake, not meeting Liam’s eyes. “I do believe it got a little bloody from my hands. And about that… I’m sorr--”

Liam cut him off. “You already said it once. You don’t need to repeat yourself.” Reaching across the table he stole the plate out of Break’s hand.

Break gave him a raised eyebrow but cut another slice for himself without complaints. “I thought it bore repeating.”

“I’ll take it as repeated then.” Liam said, taking a fork and starting his captured the cake. “You betrayed me. I’ve got it. But life goes on and I’ve forgiven you. _This time.”_ He would have told him the day before but the strange reaction from his Chain had startled him out of doing it.

For a long moment Break inspected his cake, then he glanced up at Liam, his eye bashful. “… it’s almond, your favorite.”

Taking that as the thanks it was Liam said, “I noticed. Were you expecting me?”

“No, of course not.” he waved a forkful of cake in Liam’s direction. “I just had it on the off-chance you decided to drop in.”

“Right.” Liam said sarcasm his voice, but a familiar kind.

“He who has my cake shouldn’t complain.” Break murmured into his teacup.

“If I didn’t complain I would end up doing _all_ of your work instead of most of it.” Liam returned.

They sat together in companionable silence for some time, neither really feeling the need to break it --after all, the things that needed to be said either already had been or were already understood between them anyway.

By the end of the meal Break had demolished his cake in record time and then stolen Liam’s while he was distracted by refilling his teacup. Not that Liam really minded.

Things had returned to… well, something like normal. Or as normal as they two could be.

 

\----------------------------------------------

**TBC**


	33. Chapter 33

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The second scene in this chapter is one I've been dreading because while it's very much a manga gag and trying to explain the whole Oz is creepy enough to turn Liam into a (rather funny looking) husk on paper is a little… hard. Still, at least there was a rational way to explain it in terms of this fic even if it makes it less of a joke and more of a serious incident.  
>  We're gearing up for the Sablier aftermath!

**Part Three**

**Chapter Thirty-three**

\------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

The night of the day he made up with Break Liam found a small box on his desk that he didn’t remember seeing anyone put there. When he opened it he was surprised to find the earring he’d been looking for in a halfhearted way since… how long had he been missing it? Since the group’s visit to Lord Barma, surely. Hadn’t Miss Sharon mentioned he was only wearing the one? He took the earring from the box and held it up.

It was a simple gold ring on a ribbon. Just as it had always been. But why didn’t he remember her pointing that out until just now?

He carefully put the other earring in, the flesh was still a bit tender, but it seemed to have healed enough that it would hold again.

For some reason, with both earrings on again he felt… better than he had for some time.

And, that whisper at the back of his mind faded almost to nothing.

Almost…

 

_“Where…”_

 

\----------------------------------------------

 

The next day Liam found himself walking carefully down the hallway with a stack of books and papers when a conversation drifted back to him.

Lord Oz was saying, “I need to go there.”

Sablier?” Miss Sharon asked thoughtfully. “I’ve never been there either.”

At which point Liam peaked around around his stack of books to see that they were accompanied by Break, met his eye and mouthed one word. “Interrupt.”

And Liam knew why, the subject of Sablier was a thorny one, which Break, and sometimes even he himself, had worked to keep Miss Sharon from investigating too closely. It was a very, very dangerous place.

Not having noticed this silent exchange Miss Sharon went on, “And it’s true that Alice’s memory might be there--”

That was when Liam purposefully ran into Lord Oz, who was walking the farthest back, with a yelp.

“Ah,” Lord Oz glanced over his shoulder, surprised. “Liam.”

Glancing around his pile of books Liam spluttered in not entirely faked nervousness, “Lord Oz! I’m really sorry about that.”

“It’s okay…” he cocked his head to the side. “You’re carrying so many books.”

“What? You’re buried in work again?” Break crowed, coming forward with a smile as if he hadn’t prompted the situation himself.

“I wouldn’t have to work so hard in you would only work a little harder yourself, _Xerxes Break_.” Liam glowered at him, not at all faking the intensity of it.

“You’re so strict.” Break said, clasping his hands innocently. “You don’t have to be so formal, even in front of Miss Sharon.”

The patterns of the rant were so familiar he probably could have given it in his sleep. This was how they argued, Break was silly and he ranted back until Break did something drastic to escape. But even as the words flew out, he was giving Break the look that said he was going to explain himself later.

And though Break had his usual, ‘Listening to Liam lecturing’ face on something in his eyes said replied at explanations would come in time.

Liam had just finished saying, “So at least be more considerate!” when Break darted around and quickly prodded him in the small of the back, where he was horribly ticklish.

“I hate naggy men!” he cried as Liam yelped and jumped, all the books and papers he was carrying spilling out of his arms and onto Lord Oz.

“Young master Oz!” Miss Sharon started, in alarm, but Break was still moving, scooping her up into his arms. “Quick, Miss Sharon, let’s escape!” And he ran off, taking Miss Sharon with him.

Having fallen with the books Liam shook a fist at his retreating back from his place on the floor. “Xerxes, you asshole!” he shouted after him. A distraction was one thing but had it really been necessary to make him drop all his books? They had been in a very specific order, after all. “Dammit, stand still!” he yelled, then gave it up as a lost cause, turning to Lord Oz, who was sitting among the scattered books looking bemused. “Are you injured, Lord Oz?”

“Oh… no.”Lord Oz replied, getting to his knees and helping with the task of gathering the books and papers. After a moment’s thought he began, “Hey, Liam… I want to go to Sablier. There wouldn’t be any problems with that, right?”

There was absolutely no way the heir to the Vessalius dukedom should go to such a dangerous place, even with Raven and B-Rabbit. He was going to have get creative about--

 

\--there was a whisper, half a sentence in the back of his mind, that made him freeze.

 

_“--ant Hatter.”_

 

And then he shoved the voice to the back of him mind and said, “I’m afraid it’ll be a little difficult, that is a prohibited area. The only people allowed to approach that hole are the four Dukes or the ones that that are given permission by his highness.”

“Are there any scary things there?” Lord Oz asked, lifting a stack of retrieved books in his arms with an innocent look.

“Yes.” Liam gave him his best polite smile, “There’s a report stating there’s poisonous gas.” A report he’d falsified himself on Barma’ orders. “So people are not allowed to go near that place.”

“Oh?” Lord Oz said, and then he got the most evil smile on his face.

All that Liam really properly remembered was the young Lord murmuring something about Mad Hatter and March Hare and Sharon telling him things and then the world became a jumble of mutterings and whispers that came from an unseen but familiar source in his head. He had one last flash of Lord Oz’s facing going from wicked to slightly concerned and then the world was consumed by the roar in the back of his mind.

 

_“Where is my-- he’s supposed to be-- it’s been_ so long _\-- he must be here-- Master why have you not found him?_ Why _?”_

 

He clutched his head and felt his knees go out.

 

\----------------------------------------------

**TBC**


	34. Chapter 34

**Part Three**

**Chapter Thirty-four**

\------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

Oz was almost bowled over Break as he came around the corner; he managed to avoid him just at the last moment and just ended up clinging to this coat to keep from falling over.

Blinking down at him Break asked, “Now what’s all this about?”

“Something happened to Liam.” Oz pointed behind him, “I was trying to ask him— he went all strange and fell over! I don’t know what’s--” he was startled to find himself thrust aside as Break hurried in the direction he’d indicated. Before he went around the corner he paused and said back over his shoulder. “Oh, Gilbert is packing your things.”

“What for?” Oz asked. “Are he and I going somewhere?”

“To Sablier, with Alice.” Break replied quickly. “Now get going before Miss Sharon hears what we’re up to.”

“Why aren’t you coming?”

“Well,” Break’s raised eyebrow indicated that he had better get a move on, “There is Liam to deal with. I might be along later. Now have a nice little trip, brat.” And so saying he whisked around the corner.

Oz stood there a moment more, then shook his head about the bizarre dynamic of those two and went to tell Gilbert he couldn’t possibly need the ridiculous amount of things the man was packing.

 

\----------------------------------------------

 

When he saw Liam collapsed on the floor Break had to stop himself, to check his impulse to run to him. For reasons he didn’t fully understand he was dangerous to Liam. And so, even if he could see there were two earrings in Liam’s ears now, precautions still had to be taken. Especially because he could see the metal of the earrings glowing ever so slightly, if there really were a spell than they were holding something back, something he, apparently, had triggered. Or, at the least, was part of.

And this was why Liam woke to Xerxes Break prodding him with a stick. “My, my. You look as if you’ve had the life squeezed out of you.”

His voice was hoarse as he muttered, “You asshole… Xerxes…” Liam felt rather as if all the strength had been drained from him, although he couldn’t for the life of him remember exactly how he ended up on the floor. Or why the metal of the earring was being pressed into his cheek was so warm. Sitting up he was treated to a full view of the Mad Hatter in Break and he began hastily searching the floor for his glasses.

The Mad Hatter wasn’t easy to look at most days, but right now just the sight of the Chain made him feel strangely off, like there was something in the back of his mind reaching out for it. Where were those glasses?

“Beaten up by Oz?” Break asked slyly.

“I… I’m not too sure myself…” he found where his glasses had fallen and hastily put them on. “I just remembered Master Oz whispering something horrifying to me.”

“The thing about Sablier? Did you tell Oz anything about there?”

He thought back, his hands still resting on the legs of his glasses as he went over the parts of the conversation he remembered. “No, I didn’t. For sure!” In fact, he’d made it sound as if no one lived in the area, instead of the shantytown there actually was. But that was how he’d been ordered to describe the place so that was how he had done it.

“You’re still stubborn, as usual.” Break chuckled, a candy appearing in his hand as if by magic. He began to unwrap it, speaking more to himself than to Liam. “Well then, what action should I take now?” He ate the candy thoughtfully.

Shoving his glasses the rest of the way up his nose Liam fixed him with an expression that said he thought Break was being excessively stupid. “You’re going to go to Sablier.”

“What?” That appeared to have jolted Break out of his thoughts. “Why would I do that?”

“Because I have no doubt you just sent Lord Oz and the others there before they roused trouble by asking around. And if you want to get away before Lady Sharon finds out the others have left and demands to know why you’re going to have to leave right now.”

“Ah, now that is a very good point.” Producing another candy Break tapped it against his chin, “I do think it’s going to get messy. I don’t suppose that you could come along with me?”

Liam translated ‘messy’ into ‘trouble’ and ‘trouble’ into ‘Baskervilles’ and sighed. “Lord Barma would not be happy if I were to abandon my work here without some sort of plausible excuse, especially if he suspects it has to do with you. I’ll see if I can find an excuse to come to Sablier.”

“Do it soon.” Break advised.

Frowning at him Liam asked, “Just how messy do you think it’s going to get?”

“Very.” Break said and extended his hand down to him, a silent apology for him ending up on the floor.

“Then I’ll find that excuse quickly.” he waved the hand off. “Go, before Lady Sharon finds out you’re leaving.”

With a nod Break turned and left him alone with his scattered books. In the back of his mind Hare whispered something he couldn’t quite catch.

 

\----------------------------------------------

**TBC**


	35. Chapter 35

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Before the Sablier arc starts here’s a little build-up for the AU arc that’s going to take the place of the Head Hunter arc in the manga.

**Part Three**

**Chapter Thirty-five**

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The books and papers Liam had been carrying had been part of a delivery to the records room, one that he made quite often to keep his office from overflowing with the things he took back to it.

He found the Records Keeper, the man did have an actual name but Liam was probably the only one who ever used it, busy scrabbling through papers and looking worried.

“What’s wrong, sir?” he asked, setting the books on the corner of a table and coming over to look at what he was working on.

“Ah, Mister Lunettes.” the Records Keeper gave him a smile of relief when he saw him. “I’m afraid there’s been a mistake with Lord Oz.”

“A mistake?” he repeated, confused.

“A rather terrible one.” said the Records Keeper, “It seems as if Lord Oz was never formally presented to society and yet he has been making visits on the other houses of nobility! This is destroying his reputation!”

“But he did have a coming of age party.” Liam pointed out. “He’s quite infamous for it, in fact.”

The Records Master flapped a pudgy hand impatiently, “No, no, that doesn’t count. It wasn’t completed and there’s still the scandal around his disappearing in the middle of it. Of course it seems no one but I has noticed this shocking fail in etiquette. We can’t have the reincarnation of Jack Vessalius making such a huge social mistake. It would look horrible for Pandora.” he nodded, his shaggy salt and pepper hair getting into his eyes as he did so.

“Yes, I suppose it would.” Liam agreed tentatively. “I’m surprised no one has made steps toward arranging another before the situation made a stir.”

“Well, there is the matter of his father.” the Records Keeper said. “I, of course, don’t know the circumstances but I’ve heard he isn’t fond of his son. I can only guess that he intended to keep Lord Oz front venturing out by restricting his social status but since that obviously didn’t work we shall simply have to arrange a presentation party for Lord Oz at Pandora.”

“Can we do that?”

“Of course we can.” the other man huffed. “We are _Pandora_ , after all. It wouldn’t be too unseemly for us to hold the party since Lord Vessalius is known to be a busy man. Though there would be some approvals that we would have to get from him.” he tapped his chin thoughtfully, “That might be difficult since he’s currently traveling.”

Liam looked up at that, “Traveling to where?”

“Sablier, last I heard.” he said. “I know you’re busy, Mister Lunettes, but I don’t suppose you could find some time to take a quick trip out there to get his signature? This is a matter that must be dealt with at once if Lord Oz’s image is it be salvaged.”

He had to work to keep the smile from his face. “I think I can manage that, sir.”

 

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That was how he ended up on the next train to Sablier, Hare whispering in the back of his mind --something that he couldn’t quite catch and was thus ignoring-- and a sheaf of paperwork on the seat next to him. He hoped he wouldn’t end up arriving too late to be of help to Break and the others but rather suspected that by the time he tracked them down they would have already gotten into trouble.

Which meant all he could do was sit there and try to remember the layout of the Sablier shantytown so he could could find the Nightray’s orphanage and start searching from there.

 

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**TBC**


	36. Chapter 36

**Part Three**

**Chapter Thirty-six**

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Liam found the House of Fianna quite easily, since he’d been there once before, but he was surprised on arrival to find out from one of the staff members that not only was Lord Zai there but Lord Nightray was also visiting. There were also a dozen Pandora agents, who, he discovered after he spoke with them, had been requested by both Lords from Pandora. They were as baffled as he was to find themselves in Sablier, they could only speculate the Lords were expecting trouble.

It only took a little conversation with those agents to get himself shown into the room where the Lords were conversing, papers in hand. Sometimes it helped to be known on sight as helpful but harmless.

When his presence was announced by one of the staff and he entered Lord Nightray sat back in his chair, raising an eyebrow. “What could the servant of Lord Barma wish to speak to us about? Has something of note happened at the headquarters?”

“Only a small matter, for Lord Vessalius, sir.” Liam replied, his voice carefully polite and neutral. He indicated the papers he held. “One that should only take a moment.”

“And what is this matter exactly?” Lord Vessalius asked, his cold eyes fixed on Liam.

“That of Lord Oz’s coming of age ceremony.” Liam said. There was no point in dancing around the subject, he might as well come right out with it and gauge the man’s reaction. Since the admission did nothing but make Lord Vessalius nod --though Lord Nightray darted a glance at his fellow noble-- Liam went on, “I am here to extend Pandora’s offer to host a ceremony for Lord Oz. They recognize that you are a busy man, Lord Vessalius, and wish to take this burden from you.”

There was no detectable reaction from the Lord, thought Lord Nightray had yet to take his eyes off his face. Finally Lord Zai said, “And why exactly should I do this? It might just happen to be a very convent method to keep _that_ from mischief.”

Which had been exactly what Liam feared he would say, Lord Zai’s habit of referring to his son as ‘that’ ignored for the moment, he’d spent some time on the train ride formulating a response to that. “Because, with all due respect, it has not kept him from mischief. Lord Oz has been quite active despite the fact that he has not be presented to society. Pandora simply wishes to keep his actions from being a discredit the the Vessalius Dukedom.” 

The gentleman fixed him with a long hard stare and then, just when Liam had to squelch the urge to fidget he held out a hand. “I take it there is something I am to sign?”

“Yes, sir.” Liam handed him the sheaf of papers, knowing that it was unlikely Lord Zai was going to read through the papers at all, which was why he had placed the one that needed signing on top.

He was proved right when the man just glanced through the papers before holding out a hand for a pen. Liam produced one and gave it to him.

After making a quick signature Lord Vessalius handed pen and the papers back. “I trust that I will not have to bother myself with the preparations.”

“Not at all, sir.” Liam said. “Pandora will take care of everything.”

“I see it has its uses.” murmured Lord Zai.

Liam made no comment to that, though Lord Nightray chuckled.

“I’m sure you have much to attend to now.” Lord Vessalius said to Liam, who caught the dismissal and excused himself. As he was heading back down the hall one of the agents hurried past him, his expression tense.

Since he was looking for Break and Break tended to be where trouble was --often because he caused it-- Liam headed for the room he had last seen the other Pandora agents in to see if he could find out what was going on. He found them in the midst of checking weapons and gathering gear.

“What happened?” he asked the nearest agent, a slim young man he knew as Mister Alan.

“One of the children just told Mister Gregory there,” the agent nodded at another, even younger man, “That the Nightray boy and his servant went into the crater. Apparently he was following that Oz Vessalius in.”

“One way or another we’re going to have to go in there and get them out.” Mister Gregory called over, having heard their conversation. He drifted over, bullets in one hand and a Pandora pistol in the other. “We’re just waiting to see if one of the lords want to come with us before we head in to retrieve them.”

“A Vessalius and a Nightray kid making mischief together.” another agent snorted. “I never thought I’d see the day.”

“By the way, what brings you here, Mister Liam?” Mister Alan asked. “I didn’t think you often came out for fieldwork.”

“It is rare.” he agreed, folding the papers and tucking them into a jacket pocket. “But it happens.”

“You’re not intending to come with us!” Though it was Mister Alan who said it both he and Mister Gregory shared the same surprised look.

“I am.” Liam said evenly. No doubt Break would have caught up with Lord Oz’s group inside the crater. He would have to find them and see what use he could make himself.

“But you’re not even a contractor-- ouch!” Mister Alan broke off as Mister Gregory trod on his foot.

The look the man aimed at Mister Alan suggested he had just said something quite rude and Mister Alan had the grace to look embarrassed. He might have been a year senior but he had yet to learn that some things were best not to say out loud. In a way Liam was somewhat relieved, after being around Break and Sharon it was good to know there were actually members of Pandora who hadn’t managed to find out the secret he was supposed to be keeping.

As if to make up for his fellow agent’s lapse in manners Mister Gregory offered the gun he was carrying to him, “It’ll be dangerous in there, sir, best go armed. This is a spare.”

Taking it Liam thanked him, neglecting to mention he already had a derringer on his person (who in their right mind went to Sablier unarmed?). An extra gun, especially one which could carry more ammunition, never went amiss.

An older agent who Liam couldn’t recall the name of poked his head into the room. “Lord Vessalius is coming with us. We’re heading out.”

“Well, this is bound to be interesting.” Mister Alan muttered before Mister Gregory reached over and cuffed him on the back of the head.

He was right.

 

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**TBC**


	37. Chapter 37

**Part Three**

**Chapter Thirty-seven**

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The Pandora group had traveled far enough into the crater that the shanty town around the edge of the crater was no longer visible. The air was heavy and they traveled the uncertain territory warily, hands on weapons, ready for the first sight of illusions, monsters, or rouge Chains.

Since this area was so unstable all were likely, there were plenty of people who had ventured exactly where they now walked and were never seen again. Each agent was visibly on guard, ready for the attack that was less chance and more a certainty.

“Which way?” Lord Vessalius was asked the agent who was in charge of the group by dint of seniority.

“We don’t know exactly where they are.” the agent said. “And this place isn’t exactly mappable at the best of times.”

“Are you saying we are lost, Mister Adren?” The steel in Lord Zai’s voice made the others wince and begin studying the surroundings with keen interest.

“Unfortunately yes, sir.” said the agent. “I believe I know the direction that leads out, but beyond that…”

With a sigh that sounded like mostly frustration Lord Zai glanced back on the rest of the group. His eye fell on Liam and he gestured him over.

Liam inwardly made a face --he didn’t much like this place, it was making him feel disoriented and strange-- and went over to the two men.

“Mister Lunettes, we appear to have reason to be glad you are here.” Lord Vessalius said.

“Do we, sir?” Liam asked, not sure where this was going.

“It would appear that we need the use of your particular talent to locate that… to locate the boys.”

There was sinking feeling in his stomach as he realized what the Lord meant, he could feel himself go pale, “I-I don’t think that would be wise, Lord Vessalius.” The slight stammer in his voice slipped out with his meaning it to. If Lord Vessalius had clearance to know about that he also had to know the strict orders he had about not using it.

Lord Zai’s flat eyes narrowed and his voice snapped out. “I believe that was not a suggestion, _Mister_ Lunettes.”

By now the other agents were looking curious, most were drifting closer so they could hear better. It appeared there was no helping it. While Liam could argue it wouldn’t do much good against a lord, especially not one who was a member of the upper ranks of Pandora.

Seething with rage over being so casually ordered to reveal a secret that he had worked his entire life to keep Liam reached up to remove his glasses.

 

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At around that time Lady Sharon was storming through the halls of Pandora, quite vexed at being unable to find Break --or even Liam, who she knew would be able to tell her where Break had gotten to. Both men seemed to have disappeared that day and she wasn’t very happy that neither had decided to inform her where exactly they were going. And as if to put the icing on the cake Oz, Miss Alice and Gilbert had also vanished.

When she found them she was going to scold them all viciously.

“Looking for something Lady Sharon?” 

The voice from a behind her made her turn back and notice for the first time that Vincent was sprawled in the window seat she’d just passed. His bicolored eyes made her feel… uncomfortable, not because of the two colors but because they were fixed her with a very considering look.

“I was just… looking for someone.” she said, a keeping a careful distance from him. This was the man who had kidnapped and poisoned her, she didn’t much like that she was currently standing in the hall alone with him.

“Who?” he asked.

“Just Xerxes.” she said causally. “I expect I’ll find him soon.”

He gave her a smile that sent chills down her spine, “Yes, I expect you will.” he said.

 

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It was like being slapped across the face with the world. Liam staggered, only Mister Gregory, who was standing nearby, grabbing his arm that kept him from falling to his knees. He clenched his teeth and ignored the fact that he could see the Chains curled up inside each of the contractors around him in favor of looking around.

He’d never taken his glasses off in Sablier before, in fact, Lord Barma specifically told him not to the first time he’d visited because the crater’s close proximity to the Abyss would make his ability go somewhat erratic. For example, never before had he been able to See through solid objects just because his glasses were off, but now the huge stone slabs --which were out of focus anyway-- were translucent, he could See for what must have been miles. Strange shapes flitted in and out of his peripheral vision, there in odd colors one moment and gone the next.

To the far side he could See Mad Hatter, which he presumed meant that was where Break was, and several Chains he didn’t recognize were in the same area, either they were illegal contractors or Break had been right and there were Baskervilles here. Neither would be good if Break was alone. 

“Well?” Lord Vessalius asked urgently. “B-Rabbit and that servant’s Raven must be clear to your eyes.”

Liam ground his teeth and made himself Look for those Chains --he could help Break once he found a way to get to him. Those two Chains shouldn’t be too hard to find, Chains were always in perfect focus to him, a quirk of his vision. Carefully he scanned the crater, from where he’d seen Break over until-- there! He could See both B-Rabbit’s human form and Raven inside Gilbert in the distance. Except for some reason Lord Oz was just as clear to his eyes as any Chain, despite that fact that his Chain was already out. Contractors with their Chains did look different, but never like… that.

What was even odder was that he could see a Chain inside Elliot Nightray, as far as he knew the youngest son of the Nightray family had yet to join Pandora and shouldn’t be contracted. But it appeared that that wasn’t the case. He would have to look into that.

Beside Lord Nightray was his servant --whose name Liam could not remember a the moment and--

But when his eyes fell on the servant it was like suddenly Looking at the sun, the servant was a blinding white light out of _nowhere_.

He clapped a hand over his eyes, cutting off the painful light like a curtain being dropped over a window. “It’s that way.” he pointed with the hand that was holding his glasses, since he didn’t dare uncover his eyes yet. “Both the young lords are together.”

There was the sound of someone walking farther into the crater, but not the sound of other feet following. Carefully closing his eyes he removed his hand and put his glasses back on. Only then did he dare open his eyes again.

For a moment he saw everything double, it took longer than it should have for the glasses to do what they were made to do. Finally, after some blinking, he Saw nothing out of the ordinary once more.

His eyes were still smarting, as if he had tried to look at the sun for too long, he had to squint if he wanted to keep them open.

But he didn’t need completely clear vision to see the team of agents that was now crowded around him, looking at him with clear curiosity.

“Where is Lord Vessalius?” Liam asked shakily.

“Gone off where you said the others were.” said Mister Alan immediately.

“Then why aren’t…” Liam started but the leader shook his head.

“Let him go on ahead if he’s in such a hurry.” he said, annoyance clear in his voice, “We’ll stop here with you until you’re well enough to walk.”

There were no objections from the other agents, Lord Vessalius’ imperious manner hadn’t made him well liked by these men. If he was going to venture into dangerous territory alone, without bothering to wait for them then whatever happened to him was on his own head. 

A few agents sat, some others leaned against pieces of rock, one even produced a cigarette and lit it, cupping the glowing end carefully so the light wouldn’t draw trouble.

Mister Gregory, who was still holding Liam’s arm as if he didn’t trust him to stay on his feet by himself, said mildly, “Didn’t know you were a contractor, sir. What Chain is that? I’ve never seen anyone do something like that before.”

“I’m not a contractor.” Liam replied, the lie coming easily.

“You mean that’s something you can do without a Chain’s help?” Mister Alan asked, his voice fascinated. “Like a natural talent?”

“Something like that.” Liam said. Was that better than them knowing he was contracted? He had no idea.

“That’s an incredible power.” the young man said. “It must be useful.”

“I don’t use it much,” he admitted. “It’s a little disorienting.” Though not usually that bad. It had to be Sablier making the effects worse.

“Will you be alright?” Mister Gregory asked.

“In a moment.”

“Take your time!” the agent with the cigarette, whose name was Thomas, called gesturing to his cigarette. “The longer you take the more of this I get to smoke!”

With a nod of thanks to Mister Gregory Liam reclaimed his arm and knuckled his eyes, watching the outline of that servant glow inside his eyelids, like an afterimage of something bright. Who on earth was that boy and why did he look so odd to his eyes?

He wished there was time to wonder at the things he had seen, but he needed find Break and help him before the man did something stupid. 

If it wasn’t already too late.

 

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**TBC**


	38. Chapter 38

**Part Three**

**Chapter Thirty-eight**

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By the time that the Pandora group found Lord Oz and the others Lord Zai had apparently come and gone from the shellshocked look on Raven’s face and the forced smile on Lord Oz’s. The whole group looked as if they had had a troublesome time in the crater, they were all spattered with mud and blood.

However Liam honestly didn’t pay all that much attention to them, he was much more concerned with Break.According to Raven, he had apparently not only used Mad Hatter several times but also collapsed not too long ago.

Even Lord Elliot, who did not have a reputation for being the most empathetic of nobles, looked concerned as he watched Liam kneel next to Break. “Is he…” the young man broke off when Liam looked up at him, whatever expression he had on his face made Lord Elliot mutter something about needing to talk to his brother before hastily retreating.

Liam cautiously reached out a hand to find the pulse in Break’s neck, not liking how pale the other man was, or the fact that Break would usually rather have his fingers broken one by one before than have let himself pass out in front of others. Unless he hadn’t had any choice about the action. That meant that not only had he exhausted himself but he’d pushed himself even farther than he usually did.

It took him a moment longer than it should have to find Break’s pulse, it was faint and erratic, and he worried that this time Break had gone too far. What had that idiot been up to while he was trying to catch up? Why had he used so much power?

But those were things that he was going to have to ask him when he woke -- _if_ he woke, a thought that Liam hastily buried-- right now he was just going to have to work off of what he knew.

“Mister Liam?” Mister Alan asked, he had stopped a little distance away, as if he feared getting too close. “Now that we’ve found the young Masters we’re leaving. Is Mister Break…”

“He’s alive.” Liam said, knowing what he didn’t dare say. “But we’ll need a stretcher for him.”

“I’ll take some of the others and get one from the orphanage.” Mister Alan said at once.

Liam nodded his thanks and then reached over to lift one to Break’s lids to peer at the eye underneath. There was no reaction of pain or annoyance from Break but the pupal did contract in response to the light, which Liam took as a positive sign.

He didn’t see anything at appeared to be broken and although there was blood on Break’s chin and hand he didn’t seem to be wounded anywhere. That this didn’t surprise Liam, since he knew how Break tended to cough blood when he started to over exert himself, was a little disheartening. It had probably been coming for some time, but he had never thought that it would come to this, to Break collapsing.

The scuff of a boot against the stone made him glance up to see that Raven had actually left Lord Oz to B-Rabbit and had approached to frown down at Break. “They’ll be back soon with the stretcher. Do you want to…” he took one look at Liam’s expression and realized asking him to leave his friend’s side at this moment wouldn’t be wise. He rephrased his sentence, “Do you want me to stay here with you?”

“No.” Liam shifted so he was sitting instead of kneeling, making it clear he didn’t intend to go anywhere “That’s alright. You should get Lord Oz and your brother somewhere safer.”

“Will you be alright waiting here?” Raven asked. “Most of the others are going back to help protect Oz and Elliot but Mister Gregory’s staying.”

“I’ll be alright.” the glance down at the unconscious Break said louder than words that he was more concerned with the other man at the moment.

“If you’re sure--” Raven started but he was cut off when B-Rabbit shouted over at him to hurry up so they could go eat. Rolling his eyes Raven went to join them with only a glance over his shoulder back at the two men.

The group set off out of the crater shortly after that, assuring those they were leaving behind that some of them would be back as soon as possible to get them.

 

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Mister Gregory checked that all the chambers of his pistol were full before spinning it shut and scanning the perimeter again. This area was notorious for being a place where Chains could slip through from the Abyss and he was glad that he’d thought to bring extra ammunition.

He glanced over to where Mister Liam was sitting, next to Xerxes Break (who had yet to wake). There was something about the way he had his head cocked to the side that made it seem as if he was trying to hear something.

“Are you alright?” Mister Gregory asked.

With a start, as if he’d forgotten that anyone else was there, Mister Liam looked up at him. “Oh… yes.” he said after a pause.

“So how long have you been able to see Chains?” he asked, eyes still on the rubble but ears pricked for the response.

“Since I was ten.” Mister Liam said, and his voice sounded weary.

“Why don’t you use that?” he asked. “It seems as if it would be useful to you for fieldwork.”

“I never do fieldwork.”

“But you’re out here.” Mister Gregory pointed out. “This definitely counts as being in the field.”

“This… this was not what I intended.” Mister Liam said. Something about the tone in his voice made Mister Gregory glance back to see that he was looking down at Xerxes Break. “I was simply coming to get a signature.”

Mister Gregory knew about their friendship --who in Pandora didn’t?-- and he spared a moment to wonder if Xerxes Break had something to do with the reason that Mister Liam had come with them into the crater.

“Don’t you hear that voice?” Mister Liam asked suddenly.

He frowned. “What voice?”

“Never mind.” Mister Liam said, looking troubled. “It must have been my imagination.” his hand rose to finger one of his earrings.

Ten minutes later, after Mister Gregory had done five circuits of the perimeter Mister Liam’s head snapped up like he was a hunting dog who had just caught a sent. He pulled off his glasses before Mister Gregory could even ask what was wrong. The blood slowly drained from his face. “There are three contracted Chains along with their contractors coming this way. They aren’t Pandora.” he said. “We need to move, _now._ ”

 

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**TBC**


	39. Chapter 39

**Part Three**

**Chapter Thirty-nine**

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“What?” Mister Gregory looked shocked and Liam didn’t blame him in the slightest. One enemy would have been bad, but three were disastrous.

“Contractors, possibly illegal ones or Baskervilles,” he said briskly, shoving his glasses back onto his nose, “Headed this way.”

That made Mister Gregory wince. “Would should we do?” There was the thin thread of panic in his voice.

“Come over here.” Liam said immediately as he blinked to get his vision back to normal --why did that take so long here? “Help me get Break up.”

Between the two of them they managed to drag the still unconscious Break to his feet, draping his arms over their shoulders they were even able to keep him there.

“How good a fighter are you?” Liam asked Mister Gregory in a low voice. He wasn’t sure how fast the contractors were traveling, he didn’t want to risk the chance that they would be in earshot.

“Not good enough to take on three at once.” he admitted, also dropping his voice.

“Then we find cover.” Liam said firmly, since he had no intention of taking on three potential Baskerville. “Look around, is there a cave or something?”

They both went silent for several tense moments, scanning the rock around them, looking anything that would get them out of sight. There was nothing but bare rock, there weren’t even shadows deep enough to take cover in.

“Let’s just move,” Mister Gregory whispered. “Maybe we can get out of their path.”

Liam nodded in leu of saying something, the voice of Hare was whispering, soft and insistent, _“Danger. Danger. Danger. They are coming.”_

The direction the picked was one to the side of the direction the contractors had been going in, hopefully that would mean they would pass them by by a wide margin but since the crater was a jumble of rocks it was likely that the contractors would find one way blocked and have to backtrack to continue. Their own way slowed by the same problem, they had to carefully pick their way through the rocks, there were many gaps that they couldn’t take, burdened with Break as they were.

But what really worried Liam was that all during this time Break didn’t stir in the slightest, even when Mister Gregory tripped on a rock and almost dropped him. They needed to get him to a doctor, this was neither normal nor healthy.

“Look over there, sir!” Mister Gregory’s urgent whisper jerked Liam’s attention back to the present. He looked where the field agent was pointing and he felt hope rise at the sight of a crevice in the rock that appeared like it might be wide enough to conceal all three of them.

The only problem was that it was still quite far away, it would take them at least twenty strides to get to it and they might not have that long. Liam glanced over his shoulder and though he couldn’t see anyone following Hare was chattering away in the back of his mind with fear.

“We need to get under cover.” Liam said urgently and something about his expression must have conveyed the urgency he felt because Mister Gregory went pale.

“Hold on.” the other man said and reached over Break’s shoulders to grab the back of Liam’s coat. The surroundings blurred into streaks as Liam felt a sharp tug on his coat as _something_ definitely happened.

He was positive of this fact mostly because his face was now pressed very firmly into a wall of rock that wasn’t there before. Or, he realized as he tilted his head so he could turn it to the side, they weren’t where they were before. Instead they were in the crevice that, moments ago, had been too far away to reach.

Carefully Liam eased Break to the ground, making sure neither his arms or legs were sticking out of their hiding spot. Once he’d managed this he shot Mister Gregory a look that demanded explanation. The other man touched the middle of his chest where Liam knew his contract mirror would hang if he was wearing it around his neck and shrugged.

While Liam knew that Mister Gregory was a contractor he wasn’t aware what power his Chain had, though he had heard that it was the Sheep. Usually he tried to keep track of what contractors had what Chains and what they did --since he could easily access this information-- but sometimes he would be too busy to look a particular Chain up, as in this case. It was a shame he didn’t dare speak, he would have loved to ask Mister Gregory about the exact nature of his Chain’s power, if it was dimensional bending or simple acceleration.

Either way, he was very glad they had made it to cover, it made the voice of Hare calm somewhat. He turned and sat with his back to the crevice wall so he could see if anything came by. The opening was low, they would have had to kneel to get in if they’d walked, but Liam was glad of that because that reduced the likelihood of them being seen. On the other side of Break Mister Gregory also sat, drawing up his legs so they wouldn’t stick out into the open.

Seeing him looking Mister Gregory mimed taking off glasses but Liam shook his head, he couldn’t afford to be blinded when the contractors were close. Mister Gregory looked curious and might have tried to mime something else but they were both distracted by the sound of rocks being dislodged nearby.

That made both of them freeze, especially when it was followed by what was clearly footsteps. Liam kept his eyes on the low lip of the crevice, waiting for a glimpse of the illegal contractors.

The first thing he saw the massive paws of a lion as it passed right of where they hid. A hand, from their perspective seemly dangling in midair, came with it, along with the edge of a red cloak. Was that someone sprawled across the back of the lion? And why a red-- Baskerville!

He pressed his back against the rear wall and held his breath.

Two feet, human ones, followed the lion’s. From the size and the ribbons on the shoes Liam guessed they belonged to a woman, probably no more than a girl. Just above them hung the hem of another red cloak.

“Lily, there’s no one here.” the voice came from farther away and seemed too old to belong to those shoes. “You must have sensed wrong.”

“But they were right here!” this was definitely the owner of the ribboned shoes speaking and her voice had a pout in it. “I know I sensed contractors.”

“This place is so all over, you might have been mistaken.”

“I was so sure…” there was a hint of uncertainty in the closer Baskerville’s voice.

There was the sound of footsteps coming closer and pair of woman’s shoes joined the girl’s. “It’s alright, Lily. It was just a little mistake. Now why don’t we get back, Zwei is bleeding all over Leon.”

The, “Mkay,” was a little watery, as if the speaker was tearing up.

“Come on.” The woman apparently led the girl away because both sets of shoes left view and the lion’s paws soon followed.

The voices of the two women and their footsteps faded away after that but both of them didn’t move from their hiding places for some time after that. Then, without even discussing it with each other, they each grabbed one of Break’s arms and dragged him out of the crevice. They headed toward the edge of the crater as fast as they could go.

Three Baskervilles. There had been _three_ Baskervilles. Liam was going to demand explanations from Break as soon as the man woke because there had to be something going on here to lead that many Baskervilles to this place. In fact, he might just do that before he strangled him for being such a pain.

 

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They met the group returning with the stretcher not much later, who were baffled when they saw them dragging Break, looking disheveled and harried. Liam gave an condensed version of what had happened and it was generally agreed that they were lucky to have gotten away without having to fight the Baskervilles. There was some discussion about sending a few Pandora agents to search for them but it was agreed that that was too dangerous because of the unstable nature of the crater.

That Break’s health was also a concern was something that everyone knew but no one wanted to mention out loud.

One agent asked about Lord Zai, who apparently hadn’t been seen after he went ahead of their group previously. Both Liam and Mister Gregory admitted they hadn’t and this inspired frowns all around. A important Lord missing was not a good thing for them, especially since he went missing on their watch.

But no one wanted to venture into the crater to look for him with Baskervilles on the loose. In the end they all returned to the orphanage, met with the rest of the group, and the majority of them got on the train to the Pandora Headquarters with only a few left behind to look for Lord Zai when it was judged to be safer.

Liam ended up in the train car with Break’s stretcher, which they shared alone. He spent that long trip back watching Break’s face for faintest hint that he was regaining consciousness. The flicker of an eyelid, the twitch of a finger, _anything_.

But there was nothing.

Except the whispering of Hare in the back of his mind.

 

_“Master… master… why…”_

 

\----------------------------------------------

**TBC**


	40. Chapter 40

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> My apologies for the lateness of this chapter, thank you to those who are following this story for your patience.

**Part Three**

**Chapter Forty**

\---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

Liam received a thorough scolding by Lady Sharon when he returned to Pandora. As soon as she heard about Break returning unconscious she stormed into the room where he’d been placed and proceeded to grab Liam by the arm and demand to know what had gone on in Sablier.

He had had to talk very fast to get out of that, but since he really didn’t know what Break had been up to in Sablier and had gone there on official business he did at least have a good excuse to not say much. In the end he told her to ask Break when -- _when_ not if-- he woke and she sighed and gave up trying to interrogate him. At least telling her the truth about the events at Sablier had distracted her some.

And Break didn’t wake.

A doctor looked him over and stated there was nothing he could do, which surprised no one. This had been coming for a long time, they all knew it. It was just that no one had wanted to think it would come _so soon_. It was almost like admitting aloud knowing that Break probably would not live more than two years. If that.

Whenever Liam had a moment to spare from work he came to visit Break. Had he been anyone but Liam Lunettes and had the unconscious person in question been anyone but Xerxes Break there might have been comment about the amount of time he ended up spending at the bedside but since they were and their friendship was well known no one was especially surprised.

It was two days later, during a visit when Liam had brought a book with him to pass the few hours he could spare to sit with Break, that Lord Barma arrived.

He didn’t seem him walk in, he was too buried in the history tome he was reading and it was only the quiet clearing of a throat behind him that made him realize has wasn’t alone anymore.

“I see you remain attached to his side.” Lord Barma said, glancing at Break, then to Liam. “Even while he is in such a state.”

Liam kept his eyes carefully down and tried to do nothing that would be seen as threatening, nothing that would be deemed insubordinate, nothing that would incite the Duke’s anger. “I simply thought he shouldn’t wake alone, sir.”

The nod Lord Barma gave seemed to indicate that he’d found an answer that was acceptably neutral. “I was most surprised to hear of your involvement in the Sablier matter. I have a most clear memory of instructing you not to go near that area.”

Liam could feel himself leaning away from Lord Barma, he wasn’t even doing it on purpose but this sounded very like something that could lead to unpleasantness. “I’m sorry, sir, there was a matter that I had to attend to there that couldn’t be given to another.” And he’d wanted to make sure Break was alright, but that wasn’t something that could be said to Lord Barma.

The Duke drew close enough that he could reach out a hand to Liam’s shoulder, “You have yet to inform me exactly what this matter was.”

Before he could stop himself Liam flinched away from the touch.

For a moment Lord Barma looked surprised, then he withdrew his hand with an expression that Liam couldn’t recall ever seeing on his face before. “Never mind. I am sure it was important.” Never before had Lord Barma looked… regretful? Apologetic? “Liam… I do hope that you know… the things that you have gone through… there are reasons.”

Whatever that expression on Lord Barma’s face was supposed to mean Liam didn’t much care, after all, what did it matter after all these years? He let his gaze drift to the floor. “Of course.” He did his best to keep his voice neutral. “You do everything for a reason.”

“No, what I mean is…” those very cold eyes seemed to soften just a little. “There are things that you have not been told, about yourself, about all of this… it might coming time that you should know them. Not now, but soon.”

Inspecting the floorboards he said carefully, “As you say, sir.” Never before had Lord Barma actually admitted out loud that he was concealing things, that he was part of something and had been for some time.

The expression was gone again as quickly as it had appeared, hidden once more. After a pause Lord Barma said, “There is much to do before Lord Oz’s coming of age ceremony, make sure you keep informed of the situation. You will be attending the ceremony in my stead.”

“I will be ready.” he said, with a quick glimpse up to catch what expression Lord Barma wore now. It was one what said nothing, the one he wore most often.

Without a further word Lord Barma turned and left, leaving Liam to sit back in his chair with a sigh of relief.

It would be another day before Break woke and things began to roll once more toward chaos.

 

\----------------------------------------------

 

_“We must be careful of this coming of age ceremony.”_

 

_“Do you think that Baskervilles will attempt to make an appearance again?”_

 

_“Whether or not we are certain we will have to plan accordingly. An attack on Pandora would devastating.”_

 

_“Has there been any progress on the matter we had discussed before?”_

 

_“Yes, the potential inside agent in Pandora.”_

 

_“We must be wary of that.”_

 

_“The sooner we find them…”_

 

_“Yes, the better we will all sleep.”_

 

_“It is starting isn’t it?”_

 

_“Yes, yes I think it is.”_

 

\----------------------------------------------

**TBC**


	41. Chapter 41

**Part Three**

**Chapter Forty-one**

\-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

It was on a day just like all those that had come before it that Break finally woke. Liam’s timing had been quite good, while he wasn’t sitting by Break’s bedside like he’d anticipated he would be he was at least just coming through the door. He noticed that Break had a hand in front of his eyes and asked quietly, “Xerxes, are you awake?” as he closed the door behind himself. He had to ask, after so long asleep… it seemed almost impossible that now of all times Break would finally wake.

“Liam?” Break’s voice sounded rusty, “Where am I? Am I still in Sablier?”

He turned back from the door, surprised to find that Break was now resting his knuckles against his forehead in a way that suggested he was still tired. “Oh, you are awake?”

“You’re at the Pandora headquarters.” a voice from the chair by the wall made Liam jump and Break start upright. And the would be the other reason Liam had been entering, he’d come to let Miss Sharon know she should leave Break’s bedside to get some rest.

Miss Sharon stomped up from her chair, her fan already out. Her voice said that she’d had quite some time to think about how angry she was with the man on the bed in front of her, “ _You’re finally awake?_ ”

All Break had time for was, “Lady Sh--” before she hit him in the side of the head with her fan so hard he fell out of bed. Not that this was a particularly new thing, Miss Sharon had been hitting Break over the head since they were little and had long since found a way to it that only caused as much damage as she meant it to. At least she hadn’t dented Break’s head whatwith him having just woken up.

But she did fully intend to lecture him and proceeded to do exactly that, with Break slumped on the floor and Liam doing his best not to shrink back from her anger. A Rainsworth’s rage was nothing to underestimate. She brandished an angry finger at them, “You and Liam just disappeared. I thought you were acting strangely, why can’t you just explain everything? Why do you just throw yourself into dangerous situations?” She planted her hands on her hips and snapped, “It’s because you want to fix everything in a hurry and it makes you tired and sick!”

“No,” Break protested weakly, “you… it’s…”

However with Miss Sharon tearing up and starting to sniffle he trailed off.

“How many times have I tired to reach out to you whem things get difficult? I’m scared…” she said quietly. “Really scared.” It didn’t take any more than that for them all to understand. They were all scared, all not sure, none of them knew how long Break had left at the rate he was going. He was shutting them out and it wasn’t helping anything.

As Miss Sharon buried her face in her hands Liam moved forward, reaching out to draw her into the circle of his arms, “Lady Sharon.” He glowered at Break. “You made her worried, you should apologize!” Really, how could he have neglected to leave some word? He had left quickly for Sablier but there had been time for a note, Liam had assumed he’d left something before running off. They’d been trying to evader her, not worry her.

And that was when Lord Oz materialized next to them, also glaring at Break. “You made a girl cry, Break.” How he had gotten there Liam honestly couldn’t have said, presumably he’d slipped through the door sometime after him.

Things happened quite quickly after that, Raven and Miss Alice were coaxed into the room by Lord Oz and Break was making a great production of being awake and recovered, despite the fact he was still in his bedclothes.

When a servant was poked their head into the room, curious about the noise, they were dispatched for a sweets and tea. The fact that Break had regained consciousness after three days was good enough news to ignore the fact that sweets were probably not the best thing for him to be eating.

It wasn’t long before they were all scattered around the room, seated or standing depending on their natures, tea in hand. Names and events flew thick and fast around the room as Lord Oz explained what he’d seen in the crater, and Miss Alice talked about the lack of meat and seeing Jack Vessalius. That Lord Oz had encountered Glen Baskerville’s memory was somewhat worrying, people often saw strange things in that area but never before had the head of the Baskerville family appeared in those illusions. The talk flowed freely and speculation filled in where facts left off.

While he kept an ear open to what was being said, even tossing in a few comments himself, it wasn’t until he saw something out of the corner of his eye that Liam’s attention snapped fully to what Break was doing.

Break’s hand had dipped down to touch the edge of a plate of cakes, fingers brushing the edge before he felt was way in and found a cake. Once located the cake was picked up and Break went on as if nothing had happened, but Liam had seen it --why had he done that? Why would he grope blindly for something right in front of him… unless he couldn’t…-- and Lord Oz was peering curiously after Break as well.

Of course that was when Break revealed that he’d gone to Sablier in hopes of actually meeting up with the Baskervilles, nicely distracting everyone but the two of them from what must have been a momentary lapse in his act. Naturally he refused to explain what he wanted with the Baskervilles beyond, “It’s a secret!” which made Lady Sharon chuckle and Liam splutter out of sheer annoyance.

But Liam wasn’t so distracted that he didn’t catch the brief moment when no one was looking and Break held his finger to his lips to silence Lord Oz when he began to speak, perhaps to question Break’s behavior.Whatever was going on Break clearly didn’t want it spread about.

_“Bad.”_ Hare crooned in his head. _“Bad, bad, bad, bad.”_

Once more Break was on top of the situation, claiming that he was tired and that they should leave. It was off, not quite right, there was something wrong with Break’s performance. But he was clearly trying to hard to keep it up so Liam played along, despite the suspicion growing in his mind. He accused Break of trying to put off writing his report, Break gave a lighthearted response, and then Liam was shepherding the others out of the room.

Lord Oz was the hardest to get rid of, not surprising since he had seen too, he turned in the hallway, as if he planned to go back into Break’s room. Liam put a hand on the doorframe to block his way and the young lord looked up at him, confused. “Xerxes, is… fine, Lord Oz.” he told him. “So… please don’t tell the others yet.”

Shutting the door in the face of the heir of the Vessalius household probably wasn’t the best idea he’d ever had but right now he couldn’t afford to answer anymore of Lord Oz’s questions until he had some of his own answered.

As he turned back Break’s voice came from the bed, where he’d wrapped himself in his blanket. “I was a bit surprised. I knew Oz would find out, he’s a perceptive kid,” his voice held a tinge of amusement, “But I never thought you would notice too.”

For a moment Liam’s hands clenched in anger —how could he think that he wouldn’t notice?— and then he understood the ‘I didn’t want you to notice’ that was in Break’s tired smile. Anger faded as he reached down to pick up a wrapped candy left over from the sweets.

“Mister Liam is all grown up…” Break’s tone was teasing, no doubt his smile was a match.

He straightened and threw at the same time. “Don’t give me that nonsense.”

Usually Break would have caught the candy or dodged it, but this time it bounced right off his forehead. He gave a yelp that sounded more like one of surprise than of pain and then seemed to force a smile on his face again. “That’s unacceptable,” he was trying to replicate his teasing tone, but Liam could hear the tatters around the edges, “Didn’t Lady Shelly constantly say that food isn’t for throwing?”

“Xerxes,” He knelt and held up a hand in front of Break’s face before he could continue the act. It had to end now. Break’s eyes barely tracked it, even though his hand was close. “You really can’t see a thing?”

And Break smiled the most exhausted smile he’d ever seen.

 

\----------------------------------------------

**TBC**


	42. Chapter 42

**Part Three**

**Chapter Forty-two**

\----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

Of course Liam made faces at him. It was what any friend would do.

And when Break booted him onto the floor as Liam had half hoped he would it at least proved he had a little sight left.

“I can feel what you’re trying to do from your breath.” Break proclaimed with the proper amount of peevishness for someone who’d just had faces made at them.

“My _breath_?” he echoed, not sure he’d quite heard that right.

“Exactly.” his tone was so casual, as if he wasn’t speaking about anything more important that his next cup of tea, “I’m not completely blind. I am incapable of distinguishing people’s faces, but if if objects are put in front of me I’d recognize them…” Break expression darkened momentarily, “Although I’ll loose that ability soon enough.”

“You’re… so calm…” Liam couldn’t understand it, how could he just sit there and casually explain how much closer he was coming to the end.

“You thought I would panic? Don’t you know my entire body is withering?”

Even though he couldn’t have seen the pained expression flash across Liam’s face he still must have noticed to way Liam’s gaze drifted down to stare at the floor.

“Ah… I guess so.” He clenched a fist. “So what if it is? Like I’ve said before, to me being blind it nothing!” His voice rose to rant level and he swung his hands about wildly as if to emphasize his points, “It’s only because I had just woken up, that’s why Oz found out. Give me three more days. By then I’ll have assimilated. Then I’ll be recovered and everything will be like normal!”

And he went on like that, spouting wild claims about able to fight to the death any Pandora contractor that challenged him that made Liam a little worried about how sincere he was about it. But under that he knew what this was, he could tell that this was Break trying to assume him he wasn’t broken, wasn’t too far gone, wasn’t damaged because most of all Break hated looking vulnerable.

However as he flopped back onto the bed, having shouted the last of his energy away Liam couldn’t help but notice how thin the man looked now, how pale he was. As much as Break was trying to distract him from it it was undeniable that Break getting to the point where he couldn’t take the strain of Hatter’s power.

“I wouldn’t just rely on visual information.” he said, more subdued. “That’s why I don’t find being blind a problem.” But Liam was fairly sure that using Hatter to sense around him would increase the wear on Break’s body, it would only make him fade faster.

Liam felt cold, numb, like this couldn’t really be happening, couldn’t really have finally come to this time. If he felt like this how would Lady Sharon-- Break suddenly went wide eyed as if a similar thought had crossed his mind. She would be so sad when she found out.

“I had thought keeping the secret when the time came would be lonely but now that it’s come… now I don’t feel so bad about it.” Break turned his head as if he intended to hide away in the shallow folds of the blanket. He spoke as if he was alone and speaking to himself but too quietly for Liam to catch all of what he said, only, “Perhaps even after my atonement… I’m still not forgiven.” he chuckled to himself, low and bitter and Liam felt something, maybe the ice in his chest that had frozen him in place this whole time, break.

_“Help him.”_ Hare whispered. _“Only we can.”_

So he took a deep breath and interrupted Break. “You said you need three days, right?”

That seemed to throw Break. “What?” he said, sitting up to peer curiously at him.

“You need time to get used to your current condition.” he took out his notebook and retrieved a pen from his pocket, “If you’re planning to hide this from people around you I’ll help you accomplish this. Even if you can feel breath, you still won’t be able to read. So I’ll be taking over any work relating to that.”

At least he was familiar with what kind of work Break would be called on to do after a mission. He began to jot down notes, both of the kind of work this usually was and the things he was now going to have to take onto his own shoulders.

“Liam, it’s not a problem. You don’t need to look after me like that.” And there went Break, trying to cut him out out of it, trying to keep him at arm’s length again while everything went wrong.

“It’s okay.” he deliberately kept his tone light, if Break know how badly he wanted to help this time he would only fight it all the more and… well, he wasn’t the only one who was worried about what Lady Sharon would do if she found out what had happened. “Besides, you always push your work onto me so there’s no difference.”

“Then I shouldn’t care?” Break sounded a little annoyed, although Liam was too busy writing to look up to see if he was, “Even if the Duke is upset--” 

“It’s not a problem. I’m sure our goals are the same, to prevent Lady Sharon from crying.” For that they would both go to whatever ends it took to keep it quiet. Besides, Liam didn’t even want to think about what Lord Barma would do with the information that Break’s sight was fading.

He made his last note. “…and this is my job.”

“Ah, yes as an advisor to this house, so to speak.” he teased.

With a snap Liam closed the notebook. There Break went again, trying to make this trivial, make this mean less that it was supposed to. “It’s not like that. You are an idiot!” Once he started shouting he couldn’t stop, frustration and anger at the way Break did this, _always_ did this, pouring out. “I’m saying this as your friend! This is what I ought to do!” What friends did for each other. Turning he wrenched the door open, too angry at Break to want to stay in the same room with him any longer. He only stayed for one last, “Xerxes… you moron!” before slamming the door behind him.

 

\----------------------------------------------

 

Break lay back on his bed. He was, in his own way, actually rather glad that Liam had agreed to help in his charade. This would have been a great deal more difficult without him. As much as he would have liked to keep Liam out of things the time he could pull the wool over his friend’s eyes had long passed.

When he’d claimed to be tired before to chase the others out he’d been lying, but now as he lay there he could feel himself drifting off into sleep.

 

They were on a battlefield, littered with the bodies of the fallen, still lying in the mud. A look around and Break could pick out Pandora uniforms on several on the bodies, red cloaks on others. The ground was stained red with their blood that was drying into tacky black and brown under his boots.

 

_“We need to speak, contractor.”_

 

He looked up to find that he was no longer the only living thing on the battlefield. Hatter was there and he looked like he had when Break had first contracted with him, a tall man with a ragged coat swirling around his ankles and a hat alive with clashing decorations on his head. His hair was long loose, falling over his shoulders, the same brown red as the drying blood.

“Hatter.” he greeted his Chain. “It’s been some time since we spoke like this.”

 

_“We had a deal, contractor.”_

 

“I don’t intend on going back on it.”

 

The Chain’s eyes narrowed. _“Then where is my partner? Why haven’t you found him?”_

 

“Who is he?” It had been years since Hatter had pressed him on that, with only the vaguest hint as to the identity Break had put it aside for another time. But now it looked like he didn’t have much ‘another time’ left. That must be why Hatter had chosen now to press.

 

_“He is my partner. Find my partner. He was supposed to be here, I know he must be. I cannot use all my power without him or you will perish.”_

 

“I’ll find him. I said I would, didn’t I?”

 

_“It has been some time. You have not looked.”_

 

“I will find him. Before it ends, before I do what I need to I will settle the debt I owe you.”

 

The Chain nodded once, apparently satisfied. _“Good. We will need him for what you want to do. At least, if you plan to live long enough to do it.”_

 

\----------------------------------------------

 

The Records Keeper took the file off of the self in his office where he kept all the highly classified documents for what had to be the hundredth time since he’d made it all those years ago. It had near broken his heart to alter books, even though it hadn’t been many. Sometimes he wondered if Lord Barma had the right idea to order every mention of _that_ Chain censored from the records, but then he would leaf through the documents and read _March Hare’s contractor always dies_ , _no partnership survives long_ , _there had never been an exception to this_ and he understands. 

Every time he closes the file again without taking to Mister Liam.

 

\----------------------------------------------

 

_“Where is Hatter?_

 

“Hare, please, just… stop, alright?”

 

_“But… Hatter?”_

 

“I can’t… please, stop asking, I don’t know what it is you want.”

 

_“I want… Hatter.”_

 

“I don’t know what that is!”

 

_“You know.”_

 

“No… no, I don’t.”

 

_“They make you not know.”_

 

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

 

_“I need Hatter.”_

 

“Stop! Just… stop. I can’t-- just stop asking.”

 

_“…”_

 

“Please.”

 

_“…”_

 

\----------------------------------------------

**TBC**


	43. Chapter 43

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here we are, starting on the true AU. In the manga Break is taken back to the Rainsworth household but here he’s currently at Pandora headquarters.

**Part Three**   
****

**Chapter Forty-three**

\-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

After he stormed away from Break Liam didn’t expect the string stretched across the hallway and thus caught it at the ankles at full speed. He went skidding, but thankfully caught himself on his arms before he fell right on his nose.

As it turned out Lord Oz was the culprit. He was intent on going visit Lord Barma, along with Miss Alice and Raven who had also been lying in wait for him.

Before he was tripped Liam hadn’t seen any of them, surely a sign of his distraction.

And then Miss Sharon appeared as well and demanded that she be included in the meeting as well. The servants had been told to look after Break, not that he would probably let them in since he wanted no one to know of his state, and there wasn’t much she felt she could do.

“Just standing by him is not enough.” she said. “I have to move forward too.”

As that was where Liam had to go now that the Break situation had been dealt with there was little he could say to argue against that and to Lord Barma they headed. Inwardly Liam was wincing, Lord Barma hated unannounced visitors and this surprise visit would only serve to put him in a bad mood. But if they were determined to weather the consequences who was he to argue with the heirs to two households, a noble, and a quite powerful Chain?

The two Pandora standing outside Barma’s office were illusions, though Liam was sure he was the only one who noticed, they had, no doubt, been placed there as sentries. This visit might not have been as unexpected as Liam had thought.

The men opened the double doors for them, closing them again after they’d entered with a distinctly final sound.

“Lord Barma,” Liam stepped forward to address the duke who was sitting on his couch amid a scatter of books and papers --they had caught him in research mode it seemed. “Lord Oz and Lady Sharon wish to speak to you, as well as Miss Alice and Lord Gilbert.”

Lord Barma looked up from the scroll he was inspecting and with bored gesture indicated that he wished Liam to stand at his side. Doing so Liam caught the quick flash of fear in Miss Sharon and Raven’s eyes. This was a quiet threat, having him stand within arm’s reach of his volatile master while they came to make demands of him.

Keeping this realization off his face as best he could Liam clasped his hands behind his back so no one could see they were shaking. Whatever was about to happen now was not going to end well, he was sure of it.

It was Lord Oz who stepped forward to speak first. “You’re going to use my coming of age party for something.” it was laid out like a declaration of war and from the way Raven’s eyes widened that wasn’t what they’d expected him to start with.

One of Lord Barma’s eyebrows rose. “Maybe I am.”

“Then it’s only fair you tell me what exactly you’re doing. Since it’s my party and all.” Lord Oz crossed his arms, combative and unshakable.

“And why would I do that?” Lord Barma was dismissive, going back to looking at his scroll.

“Because we aren’t tools.” the words bubble up out of Miss Sharon like they are ones she’s been holding in for a long time. Her hands are clasped at her sides and she was trembling from head to toe with the force of her anger. “We don’t want to be manipulated into doing what you want anymore.”

“There is no reason I shouldn’t manipulate you, and your house, and all the other houses.” Lord Barma rolled the scroll up and set it to the side. He rose and drifted to where a birdcage sat, the bird inside watching them all with dark beady eyes. “Humans are either beneficial or non-beneficial. While the houses remain so easy to manipulate it benefits me to do so. ‘Using anything useful for my own sake.’ This was a favorite praise of Xerxes Break as well, is it not?”

“Don’t you dare compare yourself with Break.” Miss Sharon’s voice has risen to last a shout, something in her broken by the mention of Break. “He wouldn’t forget the existence of ‘ _humans_ ’.” She puts a sour twist on the word. “He’s not like you, he won’t use people as objects!” She stands foursquare, angry and resolute. “Stop saying such nonsense!”

Lord Barma’s face went very solemn. “Lady,” his voice was dangerous, “Please mind your words.”

A wind --but there was no window open, no way for wind to come in from outside-- whipped at Miss Sharon’s skirts, black feathers flew at her, bouncing off her dress and hair. They can’t have hurt, but Miss Sharon raised her arms as if to protect herself.

With his Chain appearing behind him Lord Barma opened his fan, hiding the lower half of his face, but Liam could see from where was standing that he was smiling and there was a cruel twist to it. “You are a lady, but since you have shown no respect when talking to your elders,” the wind was strong enough to blow books from their selves and send Miss Sharon’s hair straight back, she was wincing like it hurt, “Let me teach it to you then.”

“Sharon!” Lord Oz was starting forward, arm stretched toward her.

But it was Raven who made the difference, stepping between his master and Miss Sharon, cutting off the wind as if his body could have blocked every bit of it. But with his arm out in a clearly protective gesture it was more likely that is was his Chain’s work.

Even Lord Barma looked startled. Liam eased back, he’d started to move to defend Miss Sharon as well but he hadn’t got more than a step.

“Well,” Lord Barma had wiped the surprise from his face and almost sounded impressed. “Using the power of Raven to block my power. Interesting.”

The rest of them stood, frozen in place by the unexpected drama.

“You will attend this ceremony regardless of what I have planned,” Lord Barma said, “Knowing what is planned will not do you any favors. In any case,” he waved a rather bored hand at them, “You no doubt have other things should see to before the party takes place. I would suggest you all attend to that.”

Even though Lord Oz looked like he wanted to say something about what Lord Barma had tried to do to Miss Sharon Raven put a hand on his arm and that seemed to make him reconsider. 

The group trickled out and Liam wished he could have left with them. Who knew what mood Lord Barma would be in after such an incident. But some of the books in this room were over a hundred years old, they deserved better than to be scattered across the floor like cheap novels. So he stayed to start gathering them up, trying to do it in a inconspicuous manner.

Lord Barma was standing by the birdcage, it had fallen in the wind and the bird was fluttering franticly. He made no move to right the cage, just watched the bird’s panic. “It seems it will be a most entertaining party. Perhaps I will attend after all.”

 

\----------------------------------------------

**TBC**


	44. Chapter 44

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The idea of Break stealing Liam’s tea after he starts to go blind belongs to calliope_love, if I remember correctly. I hope they don’t mind the borrowing of what I consider to be a very clever piece of headcanon.

**Part Three**

**Chapter Forty-four**

\---------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

For the third time Break spilled sugar across the table cloth in his attempt to get it into his teacup. His lips thinned and his next attempt came closer to ending up in his tea.

“Do you really need that much sugar?” Liam asked, setting his own teacup down.

It had been two days since the revelation that Break was blind and they sat together on a balcony in the Rainsworth mansion with Liam watching every move Break made for some suggestion that his vision was impaired. He had been doing quite well up until he went to add sugar to his tea.

“If you didn’t insist on pulling so much in you’d be less likelyto spill it.” Liam commented as he watched Break spill more sugar.

“I like sugar, everyone knows that.” Break said and it sounded strained. And in some respects Liam understood, this wasn’t the time to let the mask of a sweets obsessed clown slip, not while they were trying to hide Break’s fading vision. But on the other hand this was becoming a criminal waste of sugar.

“Look,” Liam grabbed the sugar pot and ladled more sugar into his cup, “Just take mine.” He shoved it across the table. “If we’re together at a social occasion that involves tea steal my my cup. Everyone knows you like annoying me so nothing will seem out of place. If I’m not there complain there isn’t enough sugar to satisfy your needs and refuse tea altogether. You’re Xerxes Break, no one will be surprised.”

Break blinked at him, looking like he was torn between impressed and offended. He took Liam’s teacup and sipping thoughtfully at it. “I really am enjoying seeing you show how devious you are. You should do it more often.”

“But then I would be predictable.” He couldn’t help the smile touching his lips, he was so relieved that Break’s humor had survived the realization that he had less time than they’d thought. “If everyone knew I was devious I would have a much harder time being it.”

Half draining his teacup Break looked thoughtful. “Do you know that Barma is plotting something for Oz’s party?”

“Of course he is, he’s going himself. Lord Barma hates going to social events, he always sends me instead. I just can’t figure out what he’s up to, he isn’t as easy about letting information slip around me now.” Liam pulled a wry face. “I don’t think he trusts me anymore.”

“If I had to guess, and I wouldn’t call it a guess because it’s a pretty fair assumption, I’d say he wanted to use the ceremony to lure the Baskerville spy in Pandora out.” When Liam choked on some tea Break shot a smile in his direction. “Think about it, the Baskervilles knew we went to Sablier, they were looking for Oz there. How else could they have found him so fast if there wasn’t someone here feeding them information?”

“That makes a little too much sense.” Liam admitted, frowning. “You think you know who it is, don’t you?”

“Of course I do. I’ve been trying to find the rat at Pandora for ages now.” Break examined his fingernails, he was doing a good job of faking being able to see them. “A chance to flush him out isn’t to be overlooked.”

“Just try not to enjoy yourself too much, you just finished recovering from the last time you let yourself have fun.”

Break chuckled into his teacup, his grin taking that slightly mad around the edges look he always go when he was planning something especially destructive. “Now, now, don’t worry over it. I’ll be the soul of restraint. I just need to give our rat enough rope to hang himself with.”

 

\----------------------------------------------

 

The remainder of the time before the Coming of Age ceremony was spent with them barely having time to speak to each other. Between fittings and meetings and dodging Lord Barma --who looks like he really wants to ask Liam some pointed questions, probably about Break, that Liam rather wants to avoid-- there isn’t much time for more talks of spies.

As it turns out Liam’s last formal clothes are in no state for the party thanks to that encounter at the theatre, they are too stained with blood to worn in public _ever again_. Thankfully Lord Barma is fully aware of that fact, since he is personally responsible for the blood, so he was actually getting a new outfit. The tailor looked less than thrilled at having to create something in the style of the house of Barma on such short notice, but no doubt Lord Barma was paying him very well for his time, so Liam honestly doesn’t feel too bad when he heard the man’s grumbling.

There was a perceptible bustling around the Pandora headquarters as the various agents prepared for the second try at the ceremony that had ended with Baskervilles and blood last time. Honestly he couldn’t blame Lord Oz for looking apprehensive when Liam glimpsed him, hopefully this Coming of Age ceremony would end better than the last one, but considering what Break was planning it might be just as bad.

Or worse, if the Baskervilles decided to show up along with their spy.

 

\----------------------------------------------

 

_“Does anyone expect this party to go well?”_

 

_“…”_

 

_“…”_

 

_“That is what I thought. I trust we have security measures in place?”_

 

_“Naturally. Whether they will be enough is the real question.”_

 

_“Are we expecting attack?”_

 

_“Of course, don’t you remember the last Coming of Age ceremony Oz Vessalius had?”_

 

_“I do not think it possible to forget it.”_

 

_“So we’ll be as prepared as we can be for chaos.”_

 

_“How prepared is that?”_

 

_“Not very.”_

 

_“_ Wonderful _.”_

 

\----------------------------------------------

**TBC**


	45. Chapter 45

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Part of one of the scenes adapts dialogue from a party scene, internet cookies to anyone who can spot which scene it was.

**Part Three**

**Chapter Forty-five**

\-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

The kind of formal clothes required for a Coming of Age ceremony also required a certain amount of dressing time to get into them as they tended to be complex to the point of ridiculousness. Thankfully Liam had taken a firm stance with the tailor against the long robes Lord Barma favored and his clothes were not half as ridiculous as they could have been. Technically he didn’t need the amount of time he’d been given so he’d made sure Break and he were given the same dressing room and helped the other man get presentable.

“You’re still wearing the same earrings.” Break remarked. “Shouldn’t you put on different ones for a party?”

Liam didn’t look up from his effort to straiten the bow at Break’s neck, which was not cooperating, but he spared a moment to be glad that Break still had enough eyesight left to see a detail like that. Though it might have something to do with how close he currently was to the other man. “I’m told they actually go with this… outfit.”

“I think you look dashing.” It helped that he didn’t sound teasing, instead there was a little half smile on Break’s face. “You don’t get out of the uniform much.”

“There’s never time.” He replied absentmindedly, still fiddling with the bow, which refused to be straight. “Or reason, really. I’m a paper pusher, remember? If I’m always in headquarters there’s little reason to wear regular clothes. You, however, look very good in clothes that aren’t tailor made to make you look like a clown.”

And he wasn’t jesting, in a evening coat that actually fit him and with the whole enable in a sober black Break looked very much the knight ready to escort his lady to a society party. Except for his hair, which was slightly too long for the current fashion.

Since he’d refused to cut it, Liam had attempted to pin it back into a neat knot at the back of his head. He still wasn’t sure how well that had turned out and he had told Break in no uncertain terms that by the next party he needed to either grow out his hair to proper ponytail length or cut it back. Break had laughed and said he’d do nothing of the sort, which was no real surprise to Liam.

Break’s hands smoothed down his coat, as if he he was looking for inconsistencies in the cloth that would give away his dimming sight. There were even bangles attached to some of the pins in Break’s hair, either Break hadn’t noticed them when Liam put some in or he liked them enough not to object to their presence. They ruined his servant look a little, but Liam thought they suited him. Besides, if there wasn’t a hint of something flamboyant about him he wouldn’t be Xerxes Break and that would shock everyone.

“Well, I’m glad I come up to you sartorial standards.” Break said dryly. “And look at us, ready before the party’s even started. Liam Lunettes efficiency at work.”

Liam snorted fastening the pin that would keep the bow at Break’s neck in place. “Well, I actually have ulterior motives to getting us suited up early.”

“Oh really.” Break looked interested. “Are you up to something?”

“In a way. There’s some information that I want to access that I’m going to look at before I go to the party. So I’m going to be a little late.” Or, possibly more than a little, if there was more information than he thought.

At that Break actually pouted a bit, “Oh, so you’re abandoning me for paperwork. I am quite hurt.”

“Don’t be,” Liam said briskly, “I’m abandoning you in favor of sneaking into the records room to find classified information.”

“Couldn’t you do that at a less vital time?” Break asked and he actually looked a little pleading. Evidently the prospect of facing the event without the only other person who knew about his new handicap was a little intimidating.

“I can’t. The things that I want to look at are locked in the records master’s classified stacks, I can’t get to them while he’s there. But during the party he’ll be busy making sure everything goes smoothly so this is my only chance for a while to break in.”

“‘Break in’? How devious.” Break gave him a smile which was absolutely not coving up something else, of course not. “What are you looking for?”

“Just some information on a Chain that I’ve been researching.” And when Break looks skeptical Liam hastily adds, “It’s important and I need to know.”

The constant hum of Hare in the back of his mind, especially with him this close to Break, is getting hard to ignore. It was quieter than it was before, but it had been there the whole time, a noise he couldn’t tune out and it was getting rather annoying. If he didn’t find out what’s going on with his Chain he thinks he really might do something regrettable.

“Anyway,” he said firmly, trying to move things along because he really did need to get going. “Lady Sharon can help you while you’re in the ballroom.”

Break’s guilty look was all the explanation he needs as to why he wanted him so much. “That’s not feasible.”

He didn’t have time for this, but Liam sighed anyway and tried, “Don’t you think it’s time you tell Sharon about your sight?”

Immediately Break’s expression shifted to a slightly manic grinning one and he only had time to say, “Did you know that--” before Liam cut him off with, “Listen to me!”

He gets a quirked eyebrow for that, but Break at least sounds a little more serious what he asks, “…what’s this all of a sudden?”

“You know exactly what this is.” He told him.

“ I already told you, I don’t want to make her cry.” It was only Break’s utterly lost expression, the way he turned his head slightly to the side as if he was trying to hide it, that kept Liam from cutting him off again.“…I… can’t do it. I don’t know what to do when kids start crying on me. I’ve never been good with children but when they start crying I really don’t know what to do--”

And that was when he did the most logical thing possible at the moment. He smacked Break in the back of the head, ignoring the yelp he got. “You’re an idiot Xerx.” And he really couldn’t help to affection that leaked into his voice, “Just tell her. She’s stronger than you think.”

But it really was time to leave, he clapped Break on the shoulder, still ignoring how the other man was clutching the back of his head and giving him a baffled look, and left.

 

\----------------------------------------------

 

Sharon sometimes hated the rules of society. Not that she had to go by them as often as many since she was both a Rainsworth and possessed of an un-aging body but when she was actually allowed to go to social events she sometimes remember exactly why those traditions irritated her. With the addition of a privacy screen there was no reason she couldn’t have gotten ready for the ceremony in the same room as Liam and Break, but social rules insisted she have her own dressing room. 

It also came complete with her own maid, which she was grateful for for once because her gown was a little more elaborate than she was used to getting into. Someone else to help lace the overly intricate corset helped a great deal.

On the other hand it meant she had to join the gentleman in her little group later and, no doubt, miss the highly amusing sight of Liam trying to wrangle her servant’s hair into something that was appropriate for society. She had been looking forward to being able to watch that.

Hurrying down the hall she gave the door of the room the men had been allotted a knock.

“Come in.” called Break. Which was odd, usually Liam or he would have opened the door for her, people had this thing about letting heirs to their houses do menial tasks. Most of the time it annoyed her, but right now the lack was disconcerting.

She entered the room, leaving the door half open behind her. “Where’s Liam?”

Break was leaning against the window looking more tired and guarded than she was used to ever seeing him. “He had something devious to go do before he mingles with us.” He said it lightly but she knew him better; that particular forcibly light tone always hid something else.

“But he will be joining us?” She asked.

“That’s he told me.” He said with a little shrug.

“Well then, there’s not much we can do about that.” Sharon smoothed her skirts. “Will you escort me?” She raised her eyebrows at him.

He went all tense, his shoulders held stiffly. “I’m… afraid that’s not possible.”

“Nonsense.” She made a dismissive gesture. “It’s perfectly proper. You’ve been my escort countless times.”

“I don’t know if I can do it this time, Miss Sharon.”

Coming closer she frowned at him, not liking the way he was staring at the floor. “What’s wrong?” She reached forward to touch his arm and he sighed, turning his head up toward her. There were lines by his eye that she’d never seen there before, lines made by pain, not age.

“I’m blind.” he admitted, softly.

Everything went frozen and cold inside her and she could feel tears welling at her eyes. Her hands fisted in her skirts, they had known something like this was coming, they had _known_ for so long and yet it hurt like a physical blow.

But… there was no changing this. Just dealing with it.

So Sharon Rainsworth pushed away tears, held out her hand, and said, “Alright. I’ll just have to lead _you_ instead.”

 

\----------------------------------------------

 

Liam had been anticipating a lot of things when he picked the lock of the Records Keeper’s office but he definitely hadn’t been expecting it to be so _easy_ to get in. All the time he’d spent planning how to get in and out without being noticed and there was just a simple lock, no other barriers or traps to get through.

He opened the door quietly, shutting it carefully behind him, not wanting anyone to hear the click. There shouldn’t be anyone around with the ceremony starting, but it didn’t hurt to be cautious when he was somewhere he wasn’t supposed to be. The entire room was lined with bookshelves, except for the wall where a door was set. It probably led to the office proper, where the Records Keeper did most of his work, but this was where he kept everything too classified to be in the common stacks.

And it was carefully alphabetized. He mentally thanked the Records Keeper for making this easier and ran his hand along the ‘M’ self. Sure enough there was a book with ‘March Hare’ written on the spine.

The theory that the records have been carefully censored is something he’s been cultivating for some time and he actually smiled a little to have it clearly confirmed. Not that he’d had any doubt he was wrong but having actual evidence of this in his hands… well, he’d been looking for this information for years. At last it was time to find out what deception had been about.

Twenty minutes later the book fell from his hands to land on the old carpet with a muffled noise. With a shaking hand Liam reached up to touch an earring, the metal of the small ring warm under his gloved hands.

He could not remember a single word he’d read.

 

\----------------------------------------------

**TBC**


	46. Chapter 46

**Part Three**

**Chapter Forty-six**

\------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

Liam knew he’d broken into the Record’s Keeper’s office with a goal in mind, he even knew he’d managed to find the very book he’d been looking for but he had no idea what he’d just read from it. He leaned down and picked up the book he’d dropped, the book that had all the answers inside, the book that he knew he’d just read.

But he’d forgotten everything in it. Just like he always forgot when he got to close to the answer. Odd how he’d never noticed that before now. It had never stuck out as strange before.

He brushed the cover of the book with a hand, would it happen if he read it again?

When he tried to open the book he could almost feel something, wearing at the corner of his mind, whispering something, like a warning. His eyes found the pages again but it was no use. He could already feel the words slipping away from him, falling out of his memory as quickly as he could put them in.

It appeared that the solution was not going to be as simple as he’d hoped. Perhaps he could learn the information by proxy, if he gave the book to… Miss Sharon could be trusted, if she read it and told him maybe it wouldn’t be erased. With that in mind he tucked the book under his arm and was just turning to go when the sound of movement from the Record’s Keeper’s office made him freeze.

Had the man been there the entire time? Liam turned warily and noticed for the first time that the door to the office wasn’t quite closed and, with the table between him and the door he hadn’t been able to see… there was an arm lying in that opening.

The fingers were limp, the skin gone bloodless and pale, and Liam knew that cuff anywhere. It was the cuff of the Record’s Keeper’s formal jacket, the kind he’d wear to a fellow noble’s coming of age party.

Before Liam could decide if he wanted to edge forward and investigate or to turn and run the door creaked open, revealing several people with a familiar face in the forefront of the group.

Lord Vincent smiled at him, folding a sheaf of papers in half so he could slip it inside his jacket. “I can’t say I’m terribly surprised.” He said, a half smile on his face that was like the edge of a knife. “Your mad friend has a habit of being where it’s most inconvenient, if must have rubbed off on you as well.”

“Considering your suspicious actions recently,” Honestly Liam had no idea if he’d been doing anything to give himself away but hopefully Lord Vincent’s mind would supply that information so he wouldn’t call Liam’s wild bluff, “I would have been a poor employee of Pandora if I hadn’t followed you down here.”

One of the women behind Lord Vincent chuckled, she was a busty woman with hair an unnatural shade of pink and a familiar voice. “My, my. This one looks like a little mouse but he’s got quite the bark.” She stepped forward to get a better look at him and Liam realized that both she and both the other women behind her had on red cloaks.

Baskervilles. They were Baskervilles and they were standing in _Pandora_.

And if Lord Vincent was with them then he had to be the spy the Break had been looking to flush out. Shame it was Liam that had run into him and not Break. He was in no way prepared to deal with the man who’d obviously killed, or had killed, the Records Keeper in pursuit of something classified.

“I like bark in a boy.” The curvy woman said, her glance considering.

Lord Vincent chuckled. “Unfortunately he’s not likely to be sympathetic to our cause. Lottie Baskerville, meeting Liam Lunettes, Lord Barma’s servant.”

“Ah,” said Lottie, her lips turning down. “The troublemaking old man. Well, I see how that could be a problem. What are you planning to do with him?” 

“I don’t quite know.” Lord Vincent said. “There are a couple of options. But, I wonder, Liam, do you know exactly why I’m down here?”

“I presume you’re trying to steal something classified.” Liam was sort of proud at how even his voice sounded. “Although I doubt you’re going to tell me what.”

“On the contrary,” Lord Vincent tapped the pocket where he’d tucked the papers. “It’s all the more amusing if I do. You see, I only stayed at Pandora to find out what the four Gate keys are. And now that I know that I can leave and let my Baskerville friends do their work.”

“Why would you betray Pandora to the Baskervilles?” He asked. “What about your brother?”

There was the flicker of something across Lord Vincent’s face that might have been regret. “I have my reasons, I assure you. If you’re half as intelligent as I’ve always judged you to be you’ll be able to manage a guess. Than again,” He considered Liam with cold, mismatched eyes, “Maybe you aren’t as smart as I thought you where. After all, you came to confront me alone.” He raised a hand, “Lily, if you would.”

The young girl who had been standing toward the back of the group brightened up and the world exploded in pain.

 

\----------------------------------------------

 

“He’s late.” Break murmured to Sharon and she glanced sideways at him.

There was no doubt who ‘he’ was and she couldn’t help but mirror the slight frown on his face. “He said he would be.”

“The first of the ceremonies is about to start,” Break said, “As the old man’s representative he should have been here to give Oz a feather before that. Liam takes his role as representative seriously, it is not like him to shirk.”

“Not at all like him, I agree.” Sharon laced her hands in front of her. “But you need to trust him, wherever Liam is, I’m sure he’s alright.”

“Can Eques--”

She cut him off. “I’m already looking.” Reaching out she took his hand, ignoring the glances from the other party goers. “This is Liam, he can take care of himself.”

Break made a face. “Somehow… I doubt that.”

 

\----------------------------------------------

**TBC**


	47. Chapter 47

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Break implies around the same time it’s revealed that it’s fading that his vision can be helped by using Hatter but it’s never exactly defined what Hatter does to help him, whether it extends his senses or just improves his vision. I chose to make it the latter and assume that use of Hatter wears his down faster and would be less effective when his eyesight goes.

**Part Three**

**Chapter Forty-seven**

\--------------------------------------------------------------------------

Things came to Liam in brief flashes after that, glimpses of a black dog whose teeth-- March Hare screaming in the back of his mind, a high, thin note-- his glasses smashing under a beribboned shoe-- one of the larger Baskervilles putting a hand on the girl’s shoulder-- “Lily, that’s enough.”-- the floor, cold beneath his cheek-- the feeling of bleeding, even colder-- Lord Vincent, bicolored eyes gleaming-- “I would let her finish you off but… look at you, you’re practically dead already, aren’t you? You’ll bleed out before you find someone to tell.”-- feet, on eye level, the ends of cloaks trailing after them as they left-- one pair pausing in front of him, cool fingers on his cheek-- “Echo is very sorry Mister Liam.”--

And then he was alone, lying on the records room floor and he felt… it hurt and--

Lying on the floor, right. That he could wrap his mind around but the pain… the pain made his vision grey around the edges, he couldn’t touch it with more than the tips of his fingers without the grey spreading out to black and--

Not thinking about the pain, right, actively ignoring the pain. He ignoring how much it hurt just moving his arm, how much pain was radiating from the gash on his shoulder-- oh, wow, that looked really bad, there was no way this jacket was going to be salvageable… Lord Barma would be furious at the waste, this outfit was new…

He lost a little time to thinking about that, he wasn’t sure how much, but when he came back he forced himself to move his arm again, placing the palm flat against the floor and pushing. For a second the pain made his vision black out however he still kept pushing, his body rising fractionally from the floor.

There were other pains, other bites and slices and wounds he couldn’t let himself think of, not if he wanted to stay conscious long enough to stop Lord Vincent. He was probably loosing more blood than was a good idea, the bite on his leg--

 

\-- _he screamed and went down, the dog, the Chain, worrying at the meat of his leg like it was a bone_ \--

 

\--it was bad, he probably should bandage that before he tried to get the rest of the way upright.

It took him three tries to rip a thick strip of cloth from the bottom of his leggings and two attempts to tie the knot on the bandage tight enough to stay. The fingers of the hand on the same side as his mangled shoulder--

 

\-- _the first slash had come out of nowhere, one moment the girl had been smiling up at him, the next her Chain was sinking its claws into his shoulder, its eyes_ \--

 

\--the fingers where weaker than they should have been, almost to weak to make the knot. Once he’d tied it as tight as he could get it he reached behind himself for the shelves he knew where there.

The process of hauling himself to his feet made him grey out for a moment again but at the same time it was so painful he fought against passing out because then he would have to do it all over again. Finally he made his way fully upright, although he couldn’t seem to find his balance, he had to clutch the shelves to keep from falling right back down. The world swum unevenly around him, seemingly farther away than it usually was, like he was looking down a long tunnel to see it.

He shook his head, bringing the world slightly closer and driving the grey back some. Right now he couldn’t afford to pass out, he had to-- to--

Lord Vincent had the information on the door keys, was bringing it with him as he defected to the Baskerville side, that information was going to get a lot of people killed. But Lord Vincent had had his party clothing on, that implied-- implied-- what exactly?

Oh, yes, he was going to go mingle at the party, probably to throw Pandora off his scent when he finally disappeared. People might not notice he was even gone for a few days, as long as he made an appearance at the ceremony where he was expected to be.

If Liam could just get to the ballroom… he could warn them, warn Break that his spy had been found, warn Pandora before the damage was irreparable.

Slowly, he forced himself to shift along the bookshelf, heading in the general direction of the door. Every step felt like it was tearing the wound on his leg open again, he could feel blood sliding down his leg, pooling in his shoe. Several little cuts and forming bruises were making themselves known now that he was trying to move and the wound on his shoulder was definitely a large contributor to the fact that he couldn’t close that hand with his full strength.

But even one-handed he was managing progress, he’d gotten at least a foot closer to the door which… was looking… very far away…

Damn it all.

 

\----------------------------------------------

 

Gregory was the son of a minor lord, so minor that he didn’t warrant an invitation to an event like the coming of age ceremony for a noble of the four houses. That, unfortunately, made him an idea candidate for the security patrols that would be in constant circulation the entire night.

In his best uniform, which he’d been told to wear on the off-chance he ran into an important guest, he’d made his third circuit of the upper story hallways and had come back to the ground floor. He had yet to run into any of the other members of the patrol who were supposed to be here, at the time he’d assumed they were slipping out of a boring duty and had ducked into the ballroom to steal some free drinks.

Later he’d find out that the rest of the patrol for this floor had been quietly and covertly killed, their bodies tucked out of sight where they wouldn’t be discovered for hours.

But at the time he’d had no inkling of trouble until he’d turned the corner and found Mister Liam slumped against the wall near the records room, having smeared a red line from the door of the records room to his current point.

Gregory nearly tripped over his own feet rushing to his side, a hand to the man’s side and his good shoulder to keep him from falling. “Mister Liam! What happened-- are you alright-- well, clearly you aren’t but--”

He took a moment to just take in the other man’s wounds, freely bleeding cut on the side of the head, missing glasses, gouged shoulder, and blood soaked leg. “How did this happen?”

“Baskervilles.” Mister Liam said through his teeth which were gritted in what must have been terrible pain by the way he was curling around himself. “Chain. Tell you…” his voice trailed off into a wheeze and he had to take a few breaths to finish, “Later.”

“Why not now?” There were probably more coherent responses Gregory could have given but with Mister Liam looking increasingly unsteady on his feet it was the first thing that really came to mind.

Mister Liam reached out and fisted a blood splattered hand in the fabric of his shirt. “I need… to get to the… the ballroom. Can you… help me?”

“I think you need to lay down, Mister Liam, I’ll bring the doctor.” He went to sit him down but Mister Liam was having none of that, refusing to release his grip on Gregory’s shirt.

“This is… important, Gregory. He’ll… get away… if we don’t…” The hand on his shirt made a weak pull like he meant to shake him but he didn’t have enough strength to do it. “…the ballroom…”

The insistence in Mister Liam’s voice was only matched by his expression, which, though pale, was determined. “We have to.” He said. “…he’ll get away.”

“Alright.” Gregory said, “Alright. If I take you there will you lie down?”

Mister Liam nodded, short, sharp.

From what little Gregory knew of medical care --the sum total of which could have been written on his palm in none too small print-- it helped to keep hurt people calm, which Mister Liam was stoutly refusing the be. Maybe if he did take him to the ballroom he’d calm down and they could get a doctor --hopefully without disturbing the party in the process.

Gregory sighed and summoned his Chain to make the jump.

 

\----------------------------------------------

 

Reaching out Miss Sharon grabbed Break’s sleeve, a frown on her face, “Oz just went back for the start of the ceremony, where on earth _is_ our Mister Liam?”

“He went to raid the records,” Break murmured, “But you’re right, sneaking in and out of the records room should not have taken too long. Does Eques see anything?”

She shook her head. “I attached him to Oz to watch for Baskervilles in case they showed up again, I didn’t think…” And suddenly her hand clamped down on his arm.

Break winced and went to loosen her hand but her intake of breath made him pause. The movement of her head toward the door was clear even to his faded eyesight and he could hear the rustle of fabric as nobles turned toward the enormous double doors at the back of the room. Whispers were spreading throughout the room but it wasn’t until a woman in massive skirts shifted to the side that he could see who stood in the doorway.

Even with half his vision he could still recognize a Pandora uniform and he suspected even if he only had the last vestiges of sight left he would be able to spot Liam anywhere. Except something was definitely wrong, Liam was leaning against the other man and… what where all those red…

As soon as he realized it was blood he shook Miss Sharon’s hand off without realizing he was doing it, striding toward the door, suddenly glad of the all the practice he’d put into adjusting his walking to his clouded slight. He brushed nobles out of the way without difficulty, they parted like the sea when they saw the black swirling around his feet. The days he’d spent adjusting might have also included refining his fine tune control over Hatter --not enough to send him into another spasm of coughing but enough to make the Chain boost his sight back to normal.

With his improved eyes he could see the red splattered across Liam’s fancy party clothes, far more red than he ever wanted to see on someone he counted as a friend. The closer the got the more he could tell that it was serious, Liam was leaned against the man next to him, his face pale, his breath coming in short gasps that seemed like they were costing him.

“Who?” Break demanded, the black around his feet swirling out like a long tattered cloak. “Who did it?” Not what but ‘who’ because that shoulder wound was clearly a claw wound and the only way he could have been clawed in Pandora was by a Chain. That meant there was a contractor in the building who he was about to destroy.

Liam wasn’t looking at him, he was looking past him with a horrified expression. Slowly he lifted one hand, finger pointing down the aisle of nobles to where that rat, Vincent Nightray, stood.

“Baskerville,” he said softly.

 

\----------------------------------------------

**TBC**


	48. Chapter 48

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The following is the first scene I planned when I began writing this story… gosh, almost four years ago now. This was the big scene, the beginning of the reveal I’ve been building up to for over 60,000 words, I hope all of you enjoy it and thank each one of you for your support!  
>  Just a warning, a lot of miscellaneous people are getting their heads chopped off in this chapter.

**Part Three**

**Chapter Forty-eight**

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The smile that cut across Lord Vincent’s face was all sweetness and light and the head of the nearest noblewoman fell off.

There was absolute silence as the body listed sideways, voluminous skirts almost keeping it upright for a moment. Then it seemed to pass a tipping point and the meaty noise the body made hitting the ground seemed to break some sort of spell over the room. Someone screamed and nobles began scattering in all directions.

And in the center of all the chaos stood Lord Vincent, smiling serenely, with the Dormouse hovering around his shoulders.

“I don’t understand,” Mister Gregory said, eyes wide, “The Dormouse can’t do something like that! It does sleep, not…” He swallowed thickly.

“It’s not the Dormouse doing that,” Liam said grimly.

Mister Gregory frowned at him, momentarily ignoring the chaos in front of them, “What do you mean?”

“He has two Chains.” Liam said, without his glasses he could easily see the other Chain curled up inside Lord Vincent, all bones and viciousness. “And the second… it’s not as benign as the Dormouse.”

It turned out to be a good thing that the party guests were scattering, as Lord Vincent chose that moment to summon his second Chain, which sliced the nearest three nobles in half on it’s appearance. Bones turned out to be what this Chain was mostly made of, looked like a larger than life skeleton of a goat with some of it’s bones twisted into strange configurations. The smile on it’s skull almost matched the one cutting across Lord Vincent’s face.

Break strode across the floor toward him, Hatter flaring up behind him. “Well, well, Sewer Rat, couldn’t keep yourself hidden forever, could you?”

“I don’t need to part of Pandora anymore.” Lord Vincent’s hand pressed against the front of his coat, where Liam remembered him tucking the papers into, “So I won’t be. All the rest of this,” He aimed his smile at the retreating nobles, “It’s just my last little flourish.”

“Then it’s going to be a a brief one.” Break snapped, “Not because you betrayed us but because he--” He stabbed a finger in Liam’s direction, “He you should have known better than to to hurt. Because now I have to kill you.” He unsheathed his swordcane and lunged at Lord Vincent.

The other man smirked and made a slight gesture that had the bone Chain moving forward to intercept the blow. Break’s sword sparked black flame and he went flying, landing in a skid that had him struggling to get his balance back. The bone Chain moved in on him and Break apparently gave the command to his own Chain because Hatter glided forward to meet it.

“Don’t use Hatter!” Miss Sharon, who hadn’t run the other nobles and now stood in solitary splendor in the middle of the ballroom floor. “Break, you’ll hurt yourself more-- you can’t afford to waste power on someone like him!”

“He can’t afford not to,” Liam murmured. “That Chain is too strong to fight with only part of Hatter’s power.” Gregory glanced at him and in doing so accidentally shifted him so that his shoulder wound burned with pain. 

The flinch that he couldn’t stop made his knees go out with pain, Gregory was caught by surprise and wasn’t able to take the sudden weight. They both crumpled to the ground and he must have made a pain noise because Miss Sharon’s head snapped in his direction. She edged along the wall skirting around the fighting Chains. Reaching them she knelt and put a supporting hand around his shoulders, avoiding his wounded one, probably staining her white gloves blotchy red.

In front of them there was a roar that made them all look up, the bone Chain had lashed out again and the Mad Hatter was reeling back, dark ichor and power fragmenting off from the brim of his hat. Lord Vincent laughed bitterly and waved his Chain onward. Break staggered as Hatter took another blow, one that made the eye lurking under the cape snap shut, peppering the floor with more ichor as a slice appeared across the lid.

“I thought you were going to teach me a lesson.” Lord Vincent sneered, “So far all I’ve learned is that you’re afraid to use your Chain properly. Are you worried I’ll still be stronger than you?”

“I’m worried that I’d beat you,” Break said, giving a smile that had the hardness brought on by pain, the hand that wasn’t holding his sword held his chest. “And that it really wouldn’t be worth the effort. I don’t want to break a sweat over you.”

Lord Vincent threw back his head and laughed, his Chain pulling back a little. “Am I not worth killing yourself to defeat me? I think I might be offended if I wasn’t--”

“ _Vince?_ ” The voice made the blond lord freeze, apparently the noise had carried into the back room where a lot of the more important nobles had probably gone to do the ceremony with Lord Oz. Of course the first among the ones to come back would be Gilbert.

Behind him Lord Barma stood, watching the scene with a frown.

“Well,” Lord Vincent said, “It looks like I don’t have time for a proper fight, Hatter. I’m afraid I’m going to have to wrap this up before my brother decides to intervene.” He looked up at his Chain, “Let’s finish this, Demios.”

The Chain flew forward and slammed into Hatter, pinning the other Chain to the floor in a billow of dark cloak and colored hat ribbons. Without giving Hatter time to recover the Chain started slashing at him, sending ichor spattering across the floor. Break staggered, made a choked noise, and dropped to his knees. He clapped a hand over his mouth and coughed, red staining his glove.

“Break!” Miss Sharon called out and she whipped her hand out, black fire hurtling toward the bone Chain, followed by Eques, his mane burning with black fire. “Go help him!” She commanded her Chain and he threw his head in challenge before charging for the bone Chain, horn down.

Like anything would when being charged down by horse with a large pointy horn on it’s head the bone Chain --Demios, Liam had definitely heard that name before in Pandora records-- sprung back into the air, out of the way of Eques. The dark unicorn pulled up short of Hatter, pawing the ground in front of the fallen Chain before moving around him to put himself between Demios and Hatter.

“Dispose of them both.” Lord Vincent told his Chain and it lunged at Eques. The first few blows Eques managed to turn aside with his horn but another slipped under Eques’ guard and sent the unicorn flying. He hit the floor and skidded, trailing hooves drawing sparks of dark fire from the marble.

The skid ended with the wall, where Eques fetched up and didn’t rise. There was a woundgaping wide on the unicorn’s side and Sharon clapped a hand over her mouth, sweat beading on her forehead as her Chain’s pain rippled over into her. But Demios wasn’t done, it advanced on the Mad Hatter who had managed to get half up from the floor, though Break was still down.

The Mad Hatter jerked what might have been his head under the hat forward in a sharp nod and a curtain of darkness flew from him, right into the advancing Demios. The Chain shrieked as the tips of the bones on the left side of it’s ribcage disappeared into black dust and pain flickered across Lord Vincent’s face.

“Demios!” Lord Vincent snapped, cleared frustrated with his Chain. “This is taking too long.” 

Demios lashed out twice, sending Hatter back to the floor, making Break start coughing blood into his hand again. Hatter didn’t have time to rise before Demios slashed at him and then the Chain didn’t make an effort to move. Only a few steps away Break dropped the hand that wasn’t at his mouth to the floor to keep himself from sagging to it.

“Break!” Gilbert called from the doorway, stepping forward. But Lord Vincent had moved while Demios had taken Hatter down, as Gilbert held out a hand to call Raven his brother reached over and laid a bare hand on the side of Gilbert’s neck. The Doormouse, which had stayed hovering by Lord Vincent’s shoulder moved over Gilbert and a moment later then man’s eyes were falling closed. 

Carefully Lord Vincent eased him to the floor. He held out a hand to Lord Barma in a clear threat but the man stayed at a distance.

“Kill Hatter.” Lord Vincent told Demios, who struck at Hatter again, making Break’s shoulder’s twitch as his Chain bled onto the floor. It kept striking, seemly unwilling to make one fatal blow to the Chain that had wounded it but the smaller blows were clearly taking their toll. Hatter wasn’t making an attempt to get up, his one large eye was still closed, his ragged cape not even fluttering.

And that was when Liam realized that this was it. Break was going to die. When Hatter was destroyed, and very few Chains could take the make of damage Hatter had already taken and still survive so it wouldn’t be long, it would backlash onto Break and he was far too weak to take that.

He couldn’t let that happen. Break has his friend. Break was _important._ Break was… his. There was no way he could let Break be killed right in front of him, not when there was something he could do, no matter how futile it might have seemed.

After all, Liam had a Chain as well.

Reaching up he put a hand to his earring. They’d kept him from remembering what had been written about Hare before and… it was possible they’d done ofter things as well. Ever since he’d begun to wear them he hadn’t called on Hare, what if… he couldn’t think that, not if he wanted to do this.

It was an effort to force himself to his feet, visibly surprising Miss Sharon and Mister Gregory, but with a hand to his earring he couldn’t feel his wounds. The left earring slipped easily from his ear, weighing more than it should have in his hand.

When he reached for the other earring a voice snapped out, “ _Wait_.”

The word wasn’t loud, but the force it was said with made everyone freeze for just a moment, glancing toward the speaker. Lord Barma had taken a step, not toward Lord Vincent but toward the battle, toward Liam. He had an arm outstretched, as if he could reach across the ballroom and the frozen Chains.

“Trust me, Liam, when I say you don’t want to do that.” He said, in a very, very careful voice. “We will find another way.”

Another way that would result in Break dying. Lord Barma wouldn’t use Dodo to protect Break, only to fend off Demios.

But to Liam, whatever the price of this was of doing this, it was worth it.

It must have shown on his face because Lord Barma said, “Liam,” and there was a hint of pleading in his voice, “You have been protected for your entire life from this moment, don’t throw that away.”

Liam shook his head, putting his hand on his right earring. It felt warm.

“ _Liam!_ ” Lord Barma shouted, “As your master I order you not to take that earring off!” The others were looking between them with confusion, even Demios had continued to pause, it’s skull inclined toward it’s master, waiting for an order. 

“ _Listen to me.”_ Snapped Lord Barma and there it was, the tone that had always been right before a blow, the same tone that had made him wince a hundred times, waiting for pain.

Liam squared his shoulders and looked right at his master. “No.” He said. “Not anymore.”

He took his other earring out.

For one long moment nothing happened and Liam felt the bottom of his stomach drop out.

“Hare?” He whispered. “Are you… still there?”

Then there was the swirl of a tattered cloak and the March Hare appeared.

 

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**TBC**


	49. Chapter 49

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This scene was in plans well before we ever saw the March Hare in the manga so this March Hare ended up looking like a fusion of the one I had been planning and the cannon one. Additionally this chapter suffers from some pretty severe POV wandering and I apologize, unfortunately a lot of character’s POV’s were important to what was going on so it kind of had to happen.  
>  And now, finally on to the good stuff!

**Part Three**

**Chapter Forty-nine**

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The Chain was tall and thin, with a ragged cloak that whirled out from around his boots in tatters and a mouth full of very crooked teeth. His large eyes were dark in his furred face and the long, elegant ears were made to lay flat by a broken brimmed top hat. He turned slowly to look at Liam, who couldn’t help but hold his breath as the liquid eyes inspected him.

“Thank you.” He whispered, “Thank you for coming when I needed you.”

The March Hare inclined his head in a stately bow, acknowledging him as his master.

“There’s something I need you to do.” he told him.

With a nod the Chain straightened, looking to him for orders.

Liam swallowed, then said, “Save Xerxes.”

Looking around the March Hare broke into a smile, showing every one of his broken teeth. “Hatter,” he said quietly. “There you are.” Moving across the floor with light steps the Chain held out a hand that was lightly dusted with fur toward the other Chain. “You shouldn’t fight without me, you will hurt your contractor.”

The hand the came up to clasp the Hare’s was covered in old scars and when Hare pulled the other Chain up the Mad Hatter looked nothing like the Chain that had been pinned under Demios.

The Mad Hatter now stood there as a tall man in a ragged coat with hair the color of dried blood spilling down his back. His hat was the only part of him that had not changed overmuch, it was still as vibrant and as clashing as before and when he tipped it back with a finger he showed two eyes at were as mad as his one had been.

“It’s been a long time since I could spare the power to appear properly.” The Mad Hatter said, smiling as he looked down at the other Chain, “I have sorely missed you since you left the Abyss.”

“You were supposed to follow me.” Hare said and there was something in it’s voice that was accusatory, “You were not to fight without me, not without _us_ ,” he glanced over at where his master stood, watching with wide eyes, “Something happened with us, I wasn’t able to find you.”

“Chess games,” Hatter growled, “Little men afraid of what we can do, playing little games to keep us apart. Keep us from using the power.”

“Well,” Hare’s smile grew wider, “We shall have to show them what a mistake that was.”

“Indeed.” said Hatter and he half turned to Break, who was still on one knee. “Rise master, and tell us, what may we kill?”

Break was surprised to find that his lungs were no longer on fire, before it seemed like every breath was a gargantuan effort and he could feel his strength pouring away. Now he felt better than he had in months, he could have run the length of the headquarters, just rising to his feet was an easy feat.

Wiping the blood from his chin with the back of a hand he pointed at the Sewer Rat, “His Chains,” he said, suddenly sure that this, which just a moment ago had been impossible, was now in his power, “Take them away.”

“Gladly.” Hatter said.

The March Hare’s head snapped over to Demios, who had been hovering uncertainly only a few yards away. “I See him.”

At last Vincent refound his voice, “I told you to kill Hatter, Demios! What are you doing, just destroy them both!”

With renewed orders the bone Chain drifted for the two, slashing out at them when it got close enough.

“Hatter.” Hare said firmly and the other Chain lifted the hand that wasn’t holding Hare’s.

The bones Demios was striking with disappeared into drifting dust and the Chain bellowed in pain.

“Finish it.” The March Hare said and Hatter let go of his hand to spread both hands in the air in front of him, Hare rested one hand at the small of his back without taking his dark eyes off of Demios.

Nothing happened for a moment as both Chains stood like that, Hare watching and Hatter waiting for--

\--dark power bloomed between his hands and with a flick of his wrists he flung it out in a wave. Demios scrambled to get out of the way, for once seeming to loose it’s usual grace but it could not move fast enough to escape the wide edge of the wave.

It was flung backwards as the power hit it, bones flying every which way, ribs rent apart, skull torn from it’s neck. The pieces arched through the air but never hit the ground. They turned to dust first.

The entire room watched in frozen silence as the fine powder wafted gently to the floor. Then Vincent gave a strangled noise and sagged, one hand clutching his chest as the loss of his Chain rippled back onto him. The Dormouse grew to it’s full size, paws reaching out to grab it’s master and drag him away.

“I See you, Dormouse.” The March Hare said, his dark eyes fixed on it as both he and Hatter turned toward them together in one, smooth movement. “Don’t think you can escape us.”

With what seemed to be a mighty effort the Dormouse heaved it’s master to his feet and shoved him toward the door to the inner chambers. It’s tail lashed the ground as it showed it’s teeth to the two Chains across the room in a clear challenge.

“A mistake.” Hare said and dropped his hand from Hatter’s back. When he did Break realized that he hadn’t just been resting it there, he’d been holding onto Hatter’s coat, holding the other Chain back.

Released Hatter darted across the floor and was on the Dormouse in a moment, seizing a handful of fur and an ear. The Dormouse glowed as it tried to turn it’s power against Hatter and the soft glow was met by the dark fire building around Hatter’s hands. Despite what was clearly the Dormouse’s best efforts Hatter did not collapse into sleep, instead the Dormouse exploded into pale dust.

When Hatter opened his hands more dust fell from them, fluttering to the floor.

Vincent gave a choked whimper and collapsed to the ballroom floor, shaking, clutching his head as the second Chain’s death rebounded onto him. At the same moment he fell Gilbert stirred, his eyes flickering open.

Hatter’s head turned toward Gilbert as he sat up and he grinned again. “Master Xerxes, do you want us to take his Chain too?”

“No.” Break said hastily, “Leave him.”

“What about his?” Hatter indicated Lord Barma, who still stood near the door and glared at the Chains. He had yet to summon his own but his hands were fisted by his sides.

“Tempting,” Break admitted, “But, no. Not right now. We’re done here.” It was hard to say it, he felt like he could have set the pair on a dozen of Demios and not even started sweating. And he wanted to, wanted to use the power he could feel thrumming through his veins.

Hatter looked distinctly disappointed but he appeared to brighten when he looked down at Hare. He seized the other Chain’s paws and merrily danced Hare over the dust that had once been Demios. “I found you!” He crowed, “I found you! I had been looking for so long and you were right there!”

Hare laughed, and let himself be twirled around, their boots spreading dust carelessly across the floor.

Meanwhile Gilbert had managed to drag himself upright and was now at his brother’s side, whispering anxiously to him. He was met with no answer, Vincent was too busy clutching his head, giving raw little whimpers as the wounds torn from the violent end of his two contracts dug deeper into his mind.

Lord Barma hadn’t bothered with checking on the man who was clearly a turncoat, instead he strode across the ballroom floor, skirting wide around the two dancing Chains and Break until he reached the three by the other door.

“Liam,” he said quietly to the man the other two were holding upright, “You need to call the March Hare back.”

It took a few seconds for Liam’s eyes to leave the dancing Chains to flick to Lord Barma’s, “…what?” he asked, his voice faint. His skin was grey but shone with a sweat and he was clearly shaking under the hands of Lady Sharon and the Pandora contractor.

“If you don’t recall Hare soon they are going to drain you.” Lord Barma told him, trying hard to keep the cresting panic out of his voice, “You’ve lost a great deal of blood, the strain on top of that could--” his fists clenched and he visibly swallowed, “You need to stop.”

“Right,” Liam said vaguely, “I should… that’s right… I…” his breath was coming short and when he looked over Lord Barma’s shoulder it was clear he was having trouble focusing. “Hare,” he called to the Chain, who paused in his dance, “We’re done.”

The Chain nodded and reached up to pat Hatter’s cheek. “We’ll hunt again soon.” He said and faded away, withdrawing back to his master.

It felt like Break had been punched in the stomach, all the air left his lungs as the pain came back, not as bad as before, like he was going to die, but enough to make him stagger. As he struggled to stay on his feet Hatter gave him a disappointed look and disappeared as well. He pressed a hand against his chest, breathing carefully in case the coughing started again. It took a few breaths for him to be sure that it wouldn’t, that the pain was fading down to workable levels.

With Hatter was gone his vision had gone blurred again and his only hint that something had happened was Miss Sharon’s gasp. He whipped around just in time to see Liam collapse.

Much to everyone’s surprise it was Lord Barma who bent over him once Miss Sharon and Mister Gregory had eased him to the floor. He pressed two fingers to the side of Liam’s neck and breathed an clear sigh of relief, sitting back on his heels.

“We will want to fetch a doctor.” He told them.

Break scowled at him, “I think you have some amount of explaining to do.”

“Perhaps,” the duke said, looking tired. “But right now, we need to make sure you did not hurt him beyond what he might recover from.”

 

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**TBC**


	50. Chapter 50

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is also known as the chapter where everyone holds each other’s hands a lot. Well, there was some almost dying going on so I don’t blame them.

**Part Three**

**Chapter Fifty**

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Liam could hear that there were people around him, though everything they said was muffled as if he was hearing it through several layers of cloth. For some reason he couldn’t open his eyes, his body felt too heavy to move but he wasn’t overly worried about it. He usually preferred to be always occupied with something or other but at the moment it felt incredibly good to just lay where he was and drift.

Sometimes he recognized the voices, once he even thought he distantly heard a hissed argument in voices that sounded like Lord Barma and Break, another time he definitely heard Miss Sharon reading something that sounded like a romance novel out loud. Other voices sounded more like a doctor and a nurse conversing in low tones and once he heard Miss Alice’s voice whispering something about the price of lending power.

It was a long time before he could find the motivation to pull his eyes open, to rouse himself out of the comfortable drift he was caught in, but eventually he followed the words of a scintillating tale of romance up into consciousness.

When he opened his eyes he didn’t recognize the ceiling above him, it looked nothing like the cracked plaster of his own quarters at Pandora. He tipped his head to the side, toward where the romance narrative coming from and saw Miss Sharon sitting in a chair pulled up to his bedside, a book she was reading from held delicately in her hands. She looked like she hadn’t gotten much sleep lately.

He must have made a noise because Miss Sharon glanced up and dropped her book into her lap. “You’re awake.”

“Does--” Liam had to break off to clear his throat before continuing, “Does she actually run off with Lord Gency?”

For a moment she blinked at him, then she glanced down at the book in her lap and gave a weak chuckle. “She comes to her senses halfway through and realizes he’s a short sighted idiot and that running away with him will cause her family no small amount of distress. So she does the sensible thing and stays. Then she works toward getting her family to accept him.”

“Really?” he asked.

“No. This is a romance novel.” She scooped the book up and laid it aside, “She runs off with him and the family is at wits end trying to figure out what happened to her until it’s too late for them to stop her getting married to him. But it all works out to a very sweet romance in the end as these things tend to.” Standing Miss Sharon briskly smoothed her skirts. “How do you feel?”

He carefully levered himself into a sitting position, surprised to find how much effort it took. Something throbbed on his shoulder and his head ached. “As if I had decided to run four miles while being chased by something very unpleasant,” He shifted and his leg sent up a violent protest, “Something unpleasant with _teeth_. What happened?”

Miss Sharon moved to shift the pillows behind him so they helped prop him up,answering his question with one of her own. “What do you remember?”

“I remember…” he cast his mind back, looking for the last thing he could call up. It felt harder than it should have. “There were Baskervilles in the headquarters, they were led by Lord Vincent. One of them set their Chain on me…” which explained the wounds, now he remembered exactly what those teeth had been attached to, “Then I got to the ballroom… there was someone, they helped me… there was a fight, Lord Vincent fought Break and… it didn’t go well…”

“…and?” Miss Sharon prompted gently when he paused.

“I used my Chain.” he said quietly.

“Yes,” she said, “You did. It was… quite the surprise.” The look she gave him was guarded. “You lost consciousness, after you dismissed Hare, I mean. We all worried… you’ve been asleep for five days.”

That explained why Hare was chittering quietly in the back of his mind. It had been a long time since his Chain had done more than murmured sad bits of words to him at infrequent intervals. He couldn’t quite catch what it was that Hare was saying but the overall feeling of contentedness he got from him made him not that worried about it.

“It feels like it’s been longer.” He gingerly put a hand to his shoulder, feeling where the bandages started, “How badly…”

She took his hand away from his shoulder, holding it carefully between hers. “Don’t poke at it. Mister Erikson came back from the field two days ago so he was able to heal a great deal of the damage but you know his Chain’s power has limits. Your shoulder still needed stitches when he was done and he said you shouldn’t put weight on your leg for a few more days. The muscle needs time to heal without stress before he could take out the stitches from it as well. Everything else,” Her thumb stroked the back of his hand, there had been a bruise there, Liam remembered but it was gone now, “Mister Erikson was able to heal. Except for whatever your Chain did to you.”

“What my Chain did to me?” He echoed, frowning, “Hare didn’t do anything to me.”

“You collapsed.” Miss Sharon said and there was the slightest hint of tears in her voice, a slight over-brightness about her eyes, “Whatever March Hare and Mad Hatter did together it didn’t draw power from Xerxes at all, it drew it from you. We were so worried that it had hurt you, that you wouldn’t wake up or would be--” she cut herself off and drew a deep breath before shaking her head. “You gave us quite a scare.”

He covered her hands with his free one. “I’m sorry. I didn’t intend to. I was just… Break was in trouble and I had to help him.”

“I know.” she said. “You’re… not wearing your earrings at the moment, is that going to be a problem? Because Xerxes is probably going to be back soon.”

Reaching up he checked his ears and was surprised to find that she was right, he’d worn them for so long that he’d taken for granted that the earrings would be there. But, no, he remembered now taking them off, he’d had to before he could even contact Hare. That explained why Hare hadn’t faded back to a shadow in his mind.

As if roused by the thought Hare made a pleased noise in the back of his mind and went back to chattering to himself. “No,” he said, “I don’t think it will be. The power they had… I don’t think it’s needed right now.”

“Good.” Miss Sharon said, “Xerxes has been visiting quite often, honestly the only reason he isn’t here right now is that I made him go get something to eat. Something that _isn’t_ a sweet.”

“How is he?” He asked.

“Using his powers didn’t seem to hurt him as much as it normally would,” she told him. “And I think most of the after-effects were from when he used his power before you let your Chain loose. Before destroying two Chains would have had quite the toll on his health. Now… now he’s not perfectly healthy, but he we both know he never was to begin with.”

“That’s good. He can’t afford to loose anymore of his health to using Hatter.”

Miss Sharon set his hand back down and sighed. “He told me, you know, about his eyes. Right before the party.” At Liam’s frown and nod she gave him a small smile, “I knew you would have known. You’re too close to have missed it. I’m just glad he trusted me enough to finally tell me what was wrong.”

There was a pause and she took a breath, “I knew something was going on-- with you and your Chain and Xerxes. I’ve known for a long time. I’m sorry I never tried to help you with your Chain… and with Lord Barma.”

“I never asked for help… with either of those things.” he glanced down at his hands, without gloves now, with the scars bare for the world to see. “I’d been working on the Chain problem, I almost had it solved before the party. I found records that would have told me everything but…” he touched his left ear, feeling again the lack of earring, “I kept forgetting everything I’d read, it was quite frustrating. If the Baskervilles hadn’t been there I had planned to just steal the book and ask you to read it for me.”

“I suppose we’ll never know now if that would have worked.” Miss Sharon said, “I wish this could have come out without so much hurt to others.”

“What happened to Lord Vincent?” Liam asked, remembering now how he’d fallen after Hatter had destroyed his Chains.

“He’s in a cell,” she told him, her nose wrinkling in distaste, “But since the doctors have yet to get any words that make sense from him I don’t think he’s a danger to anyone at the moment. Surprise has been expressed that he is even still alive, two Chains’ death would have usually killed a contractor and an illegal one should have dragged him back to the Abyss.”

“Does anyone know why he survived?”

“Not yet.” Her mouth twitched, “But I have to admit, no one has really looked into it deeply yet. Pandora is more concerned with how he managed to stay here so long without anyone finding out he was feeding information to the Baskervilles. And, more importantly, how he smuggled that many of them in. They’ve been looking into that very intently.”

Liam glanced around the room, “Is this Pandora then… it… doesn’t look like my room though.”

“It is, but we didn’t want to move you excessively so you’re in one of the ground floor rooms. Of course now that you’re awake Grandmother will no doubt make arrangements for you to come to recover in the Rainsworth household.”

“That’s very generous of her.” Liam said and he caught the flicker of something odd that slid across Miss Sharon’s face, “What is it?”

She laced her hands in front of her, “Lord Barma was very vocal in his demands to have you removed to the Barma household before you woke. Thankfully the doctors were just as adamant that you shouldn’t be moved too much and no one wanted the healing Mister Erikson did to be undone by jostling your wounds too much. Oz and Gilbert are distracting him, I think Grandmother is helping, we won’t let you be taken to that house again.”

“I-- you didn’t have to go to that much trouble,” he stuttered but she shook her head.

“Liam, we’re all tired of seeing this happen, _I’m_ tired of seeing you hurt. Friends are supposed to do this, they’re supposed to help you when you’re in trouble. So that’s what we did.” She gave his arm a gentle pat, “And we’re glad to do it because you would have done the same for me or Gilbert or any of us. So don’t you dare get all flustered about it. The doctors will be quite annoyed at me, none of us were supposed to upset you when you woke.”

There was the scuff of a boot by the door and Liam looked up in time to see a flick of white. “Wait.” He called and had to clear his throat to try again, louder, “Wait. Come back.”

Miss Sharon gave a small smile and retook her seat, looking amused.

“I know you’re there.” Liam told the person who must have been standing just to the side of the doorway from the part of the white sleeve he could see. “Come in.”

There was a long pause and then Break stepped into the doorway, pausing uncertainly before stepping in.

In the back of his mind Liam felt Hare rouse with interest and he couldn’t keep the smile from his face as he reached out a hand to him, palm up. “Hello, Xerxes.”

His sight seemed not to have faded so far that he couldn’t see the hand offered because Break took it at once, holding his hand carefully between his. It was like a piece that Liam hadn’t known was missing had slotted into place, like coming home after being gone for a long, long time, their hands fit easily together and their Chains both made sounds of contentment.

Both men breathed a sigh of relief and Break’s lips curved up into a smile very unlike the wide, foolish ones he so often flash around. “Hello, Liam.” he said quietly. “I’m glad you’re awake.”

 

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**TBC**


	51. Chapter 51

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is it, this is the very last chapter! It’s taken about four years to get to this point, which is the longest I’ve ever worked on a fanfic and I want to thank every one of you who have hopped onto this crazy train to ride until the end. You are the best and your support gave me motivation to keep going when real life threw things in the way. We’ve come a long way together and I’m so thankful you all stuck with me!
> 
> Now, before we finish, a quick word about a sequel. Yes, I do want to do one, that’s one of the reasons these last couple of chapters took so long, I had to redo some of my notes to accommodate. It would be a continuing AU about Break and Liam dealing with their new connection and the very big things that are going to be happening in their world. However this story may be be a bit in coming, I need to take a break from this story for a bit and work on some other fics and some personal stories. I also want do a reread of Pandora Hearts now that its done because the sequel is going to draw from canon quite a bit as well and PH had a bad habit of doing the things you least expect. So… yeah. There’s that coming eventually. Look forward to seeing you all there.
> 
> So, now, to the end!

**Part Three**

**Chapter Fifty-one**

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There was no precedent for being able to hear another contractor’s Chain while they where not actively using it, but Liam could have sworn he could hear the faint rumble of Mad Hatter’s voice as Break sat on the edge of his bed. There was the hum of his own Chain responding, then both Chains settled into silence, leaving their contractors staring at each other with great surprise.

“Do you think you’re going to keep doing that?” Liam asked.

“I don’t think we’re going to be able to stop them now that they’ve found each other.” Break replied. “Do you… have a problem with that?”

“No.”Liam found himself tightening his fingers around Break’s hand when he tried to take it away. “No. I… don’t mind it at all. It’s like having something missing back to where it should be.”

A bit of tension Liam hadn’t noticed in Break’s shoulder went away. “Having your Chain sealed away might have had something to do with that.”

“Yes, it likely did.” A thought occurred to Liam and he frowned, “I wonder… if the reason that your Chain made you so sick was not completely for… the reasons we thought. Maybe the power was never supposed to all come from you.”

“Hatter did once tell me he that he couldn’t use his full power without the affect on me being quite bad.” Break mused. “He failed to mention that the power would come from someone else completely. It does explain why he was quite adamant about finding the March Hare.”

“I think Hare wanted to find the Mad Hatter for a while,” Liam rubbed the side of his head with his free hand, “I have some vague memories of before I had the earrings, Hare used to call for Hatter.”

“Who gave you those?” Break asked.

“Lord Barma.” he told him. “He gave them to me…” he could feel his frown deepening, “Right after you contracted with Mad Hatter. He told me to wear them and never taken them off, at the time I didn’t question it. Then after I put them on… asking what they were for never occurred to me.”

“I broke them.” Break blurted and looked mildly mortified. “I mean, I hope you didn’t want to keep them because I had the rings smashed and burned the ribbons.”

“That seems a bit extreme.”

“Liam,” Miss Sharon spoke up from her chair, causing them both to glance over at her, “They held power over your mind, that isn’t something to underestimate. Even when you were wearing only one they had enough influence to make you forget things you had just said. We wanted to be sure they couldn’t have any residual hold over you.” She wrinkled her nose. “The hammer we used to break the rings cracked all the way through and the flames of the fire we threw the ribbons into burned purple for hours.”

“Someone went to a great deal of trouble to ensure that we never met.” Liam said. “Our Chains are clearly more effective together, it seems counter-intuitive to keep us apart. We could have been much more useful to Pandora together.”

“That is until you take into account the fact that almost every other pairing of a Mad Hatter contractor and a March Hare contractor has seen the March Hare contractor die young.” Lord Barma stood in the doorway, flanked by two men in Pandora uniform who Liam could clearly tell were illusionary. “They all died drained down to nothing, mere husks of what they had once been.”

“It would be difficult for us to know that considering the removal of all records pertaining to the March Hare Chain and it’s contractors.” Miss Sharon had risen from her chair and moved to stand between the two men by the bed and the duke. “One would think you were hiding something.”

“I have no need to justify my actions to you.” Duke Barma told her, looking at her with cold eyes. “Now I am going to have to ask you to order your servant to leave.”

“No.” Miss Sharon said, her voice going serious. “I will do no such thing.”

“Very well,” Duke Barma took a step to the side and addressed Break directly. “Xerxes Break, get away from my servant or there will be serious consequences.”

Break’s hand clenched hard enough on Liam’s that Liam’s fingers to ache, “No.” he said.

“Liam,” Duke Barma’s voice snapped out like a whip. “Tell him to leave.”

“No.” Liam said quietly.

“What was that?” the other man demanded.

“No.” Liam said more loudly. He swallowed and sat up straighter. “I’m done with this. With all of it. The anger and the abuse, I’ve put up with this long enough and now that I know what you’ve been working to do… that’s it.”

“What are you talking about?” Duke Barma snapped.

Liam squeezed Break’s hand reassuringly and made his tone flat and level. “Lord Barma, this is my formal notification of my cessation of contract.”

“What?” Duke Barma blinked at him.

“I quit.” Liam said. “Pandora, servitude, all of it. I’m done. My contract of employment is not absolute, I can leave and I am.”

There was a long moment where everyone stared at him, seeming to need that time to process the enormity of what he’d just said.

Then Lord Barma sighed and seemed to deflate. He made a careless gesture that had the two Pandora men illusions behind him disappear then walked into the room and shooed Miss Sharon away from the chair so he could ease into it in a manner that suggested that his body did actually remember that it was quite old, even if it didn’t show it.

“That wasn’t what I wanted.” He said. “You don’t have to leave Pandora.”

“Yes.” Liam replied. “It appears I do. I’m tired of being manipulated for reasons that no one has bothered to explain to me and it looks like I’m going to have to leave Pandora if I want to be free from it.”

“Where exactly would you go without the Barma household to call a home?” Lord Barma asked. “You are still a contractor and without any connection to the Four Houses Pandora would be forced to consider you a rouge agent.”

Miss Sharon cleared her throat, delicately. “Mister Liam would find that he has a place ready and waiting for him in the Rainsworth household. Should he wish to join a household that is.” She arched an eyebrow at Lord Barma. “Whether or not he takes a formal place in the household he has our protection as a honorary member.”

“That was enquiry, not a threat.” Lord Barma said, he took in the frowns on Miss Sharon and Break’s faces and shook his head. “I do suppose I have no right to ask you to believe that.”

“No, you don’t.” Liam said. “Not considering the circumstances. Since there’s no hope you continuing the keep up the pretense that you haven’t been trying to keep my Chain away from Break’s I believe an explanation is in order. I assume there was a reason for the fact so much effort was put into it.”

“Precedent suggested that the moment you contracted with the March Hare your life was going to end prematurely.” Lord Barma said, he made a movement as if to reach for his fan, probably wanting something for his hands to do, and then seemed to think better of it. “We had intended for you to contract with Yamane, instead you contracted with a Chain that was an active risk to your life. So measures were put into place to protect you when someone contracted with the Mad Hatter.”

“Those Chains are clearly meant to work together. Why separate them? Why keep their connection secret?” Miss Sharon asked.

“There have been five different contractors of both Hare and Hatter.” Lord Barma told them. “Each pair worked together, which seemed only sensible as the Mad Hatter Chain works to full potential by using power from the March Hare. The other Chain acts as a power well and a spotter for Mad Hatter. Unfortunately the power drawn from March Hare also comes from March Hare’s contractor. Every single March Hare contractor died young, most faded to a husk or were killed in the line of duty when their Chain left them too weak to defend themselves.”

“So you sought to keep them apart?” Miss Sharon glared at him, “Xerxes’ Chain took a huge toll on his body, with Liam’s power that could have been avoided.”

Liam looked at Break with surprise, he hadn’t thought of that, hadn’t realized that Break had unknowingly paid such a harsh price for their separation.

“When Xerxes Break contracted with the Mad Hatter my only thought was to preserve the life of my own servant.” Lord Barma replied, glaring back at Miss Sharon. “That was also the wish of the council of house heads that Liam be given priority.”

The fact that Pandora’s upper ranks as a whole hadn’t liked or particular trusted Break went without saying. It made sense, a terrible, painful kind of sense, that they had acted to keep this a secret from Break and let him get weaker and weaker every time he used his Chain. This entire time Liam had been protected it had been to Break’s detriment.

“The earrings,” Liam’s free hand went up to touch his bare earlobe, “They made me forget event the name of my Chain sometimes. Why keep me ignorant if I was in so much danger?”

“There was a belief among the council that if you knew of the connection between your Chains there would be little chance of keeping the both of you apart.” Lord Barma said.

“Was that what you believed?” Liam asked him.

“Yes.” he said flatly. “I did everything in my effort to keep you apart but it appears not to have made a difference. You have already used your Chains together and started the cycle again.”

“So now it would be impossible to separate them?” Miss Sharon asked and both Break and Liam gave her surprised looks at her question.

“Not now that their Chains have hunted together.” Lord Barma said, “It was attempted with the last pair and they did not go long before their Chains drove them back together.”

“Well then,” Miss Sharon smiled slightly, “That is for the best then. I believe the choice about what to with these Chains should lie with the people who hold them. You have stripped them of this right for too long.”

“You are very casual about the death of two people you claim to have affection for.” Lord Barma said.

“You will find I am a great deal less casual about my friends having their minds tampered with ‘for their own good’.” she said cooly.

“Very well then.” Lord Barma said. “It appears that none of you are intent on changing your minds.”

“You had to know that coming here.” Break openly scowled in Lord Barma’s direction, still holding fast to Liam’s hand.

“I did.” rising, Lord Barma smoothed out his robes. “Liam, are you sure you wish to leave my service?”

“Yes.” Liam said. “I do.”

“Will you at least consider staying with Pandora?” Lord Barma asked. “We do need you here, even if you do not wish to remain among the Four Houses.”

“I’ll… think about it.” Liam said. “There a lot of things for me to consider. And a lot more factors than there was before.”

“Of course. Do let me know when you decide. I will have my secretary-- a secretary,” he corrected himself when he apparently remembered that Liam did most of his important paperwork, “Draw up the correct paperwork for the end of your service to my household.”

He headed to the door, only to pause just before he went through it. “Oh, and, Liam?”

“Yes?”

“There were… certain actions I have taken toward you, aside the the March Hare issue. Actions taken in temper or in a moment of poor decision… that I would wish to apologize for, if you would accept such a thing.”

Liam looked at his former master’s back, at the way he couldn’t even face him to say the words and found the reply already on his lips. “I think an apology does not even begin to justify or forgive your actions.”

Lord Barma glanced over his shoulder, his face completely unreadable. “Yes, I had a feeling you would say that.”

And, without another word to the rest of them he left.

Without speaking Miss Sharon went to close the door, the click of it very loud in the silence between them. She took the seat Lord Barma had just vacated and turned to the two men.

“So… what do we do now?”

Their hands were still locked together, their Chains murmuring quietly with contentment as a new and very different future stretched out ahead of them.

Liam covered Break’s hand with his own and smiled at both of them. “I have no idea. But I definitely want to find out.”

 

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_“Ah, there you are.”_

 

_“Yes, here I am. And here I intend to stay.”_

 

\----------------------------------------------

**The End**


End file.
